


Clockwork and Coffee

by days_of_storm



Category: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, And he almost does mess it up because of that, Clairvoyance, Clockwork - Freeform, F/M, First Kiss, First Meeting, First Time, Fluff, Idiots in Love, London, M/M, Meant To Be, Mori is a customer, Mori is worried about messing things up all the time, Pining, Synesthesia, Thaniel is a barista, Thaniel is bi, latte art, meant for each other obviously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:01:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 21,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24632740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/days_of_storm/pseuds/days_of_storm
Summary: A series of (un)fortunate events leads Thaniel Steepleton, who is working as a barista specialising in latte art in an attempt to pay off his student loans, to work in a cafe in Knightsbridge. One of the regulars is Mori, a quiet Japanese aristocrat, who appears ever more mysterious the better Thaniel gets to know him. When Thaniel begins to wonder at Mori's uncanny ability to answer unasked questions, he wonders whether he's involved in a strange secret service project. Unlikely answers come from Grace Carrow, his boss's fascinating aquaintance, who has an untraditional approach to marriage proposals.
Relationships: Grace Carrow/Akira Matsumoto, Grace Carrow/Thaniel Steepleton, Keita Mori/Thaniel Steepleton
Comments: 20
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very silly coffee shop AU, featuring the characters and very rough plot points of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. I love Natasha Pulley's books and characters and just wanted them to have a playground in this imaginary cafe which is frequented by the rich and famous near Hyde Park. I also needed more of Francis Fanshaw doing arts and crafts and being his fabulous gay self - so, I wrote this. 
> 
> The chapters are all fairly short. This will have ~~approximately 12~~ 15 chapters overall.  
> All mistakes are mine!

Thaniel smelled the smoke before he saw it. When he walked around the corner, he was met with a picture of total devastation. The sound of broken glass and the sooty-grey billows of smoke and orange, licking flames were joined by sharp white and icy blue flashes.

Then the soundscape changed and with it the colours. Firemen began directing their hoses at what used to be a coffee shop in an old office building. Thaniel had worked there since leaving university, and, until now, he hadn’t felt particularly attached to it, other than in the sense that he very, very slowly worked off his student loans by making people the drinks they liked best and remembering exactly what they wanted. That, and latte art. He’d taught himself how to pour about a dozen of different shapes with milky froth. 

He watched in fascination. It could only have been one of the old gas pipes, he was sure of that. He had sometimes seen strange colours in the backrooms, but whenever he called someone about it, they came and checked and left again without finding anything wrong. 

Thaniel leaned against the next wall, watching the building burn as the water added to the damage. There was nothing to save anyway. 

“Jesus!” A voice came from his right and Thaniel had to force himself to tear his eyes away. “Do you know what happened?”

He looked to his left to find what he assumed was one of the city boys going to work, even though it was barely past five o’clock in the morning. But the stock market doesn’t sleep, does it? “Erm, no idea. I was supposed to go in there. I’m actually late,” he realised. He had planned on coming twenty minutes earlier today, because he wanted to have time for himself to count the stock without the interruption of his colleague Samira, who was lovely and very, very funny at times, but very also very talkative and he found it hard to concentrate on her colourful voice before 6 am. Yet, he had woken up later than he had intended and then, when he had tried to unlock his bicycle, the key had broken off inside the lock. He had taken the bus instead, but there had been a diversion around Parliament Square and he had arrived only now at his regular time. 

“Thaniel!” Samira came jogging over to him. “Jesus. I thought you might already be inside.” She hugged him tightly and he had to bend down a little to accommodate her. “Are you alright?”

He nodded. 

“Oh, you’ve been lucky indeed then,” the man next to him said. “Are you usually late to work?”

Thaniel unwrapped Samira’s arms from around his shoulders and straightened. “No. Never.”

“Truly lucky then,” the man nodded. “Listen, how about … you two come work for me?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I own a small chain of cafés. Nothing big yet. Been losing baristas over the past few weeks. You see, Christmas season was stressful, and a few of them decided that they did want to move on with their lives. I assume they took up yoga over the holidays and found that working in a coffee shop was not going to be their destiny.”

Well, Thaniel thought, neither had it been his plan, and yet. “Sorry, just to … you did just offer us a job?”

“You see,” the man said. “I was stuck on a bus around Parliament Square that I had taken since the Tube didn't run. I missed a bid on a contract just now with a Chinese tea company, because I was supposed to meet someone just around the corner and that’s roped off now, because of the fire. No chance of me getting in. And as I made it my number one rule to always climb over the rocks that are thrown into my path, I think offering you two a job when I need good people to work for me, and, well, I trust you are good people by the looks on your faces right now, will help me climb over that particular rock.”

Thaniel and Samira stared. “Erm, what’s your name?” she finally asked. 

“Fanshaw. Francis Fanshaw.”

“No!” Samira said, taking a step back. She nervously repinned her hijab, which she always did when she was trying to keep herself from saying something rude or inappropriate. Thaniel could see by the glimmer in her eyes that she knew who he was. 

“Sorry, yes, that one,” he held up his hands in a manner that told Thaniel he had experienced Samira’s reaction a thousand times.

“Sorry, should I be familiar?”

Samira gave him a searing look. “His father sits in the House of Lords.” As if that should impress him. He swallowed down that particular reaction.

“Right,” he cleared his throat. “So, where do we apply?”

They ended up in a Pret’s, which was the only place that had already opened, and Fanshaw showed him images of the cafés he owned. They were scattered all over London, had different names and interior designs, and he himself tended to work the afternoon shifts. Samira seemed impressed; Thaniel thought that he only would be if he worked the mornings as well. When Fanshaw emailed them the application forms and he saw the pay, he decided that he was a horrible cynic and that he should be nicer to his likely future boss in his mind. 

“That’s … are you sure you want to hire us?”

“Bring me a letter of recommendation and fill in the form and the job is yours. I have to dash. There’s another possible contract waiting for me at six and I can call into that meeting. Lovely meeting you two, and I hope to see you soon.”

He shook Samira’s hand first, and then Thaniel’s, for a split second longer than he assumed was normal. When he looked up in surprise, Fanshaw winked. Immediately, Thaniel’s neck grew hot. He had done very well in trying to ignore that he looked like one of those people who would smile and the world would give them what they wanted while feeling that they had been given something precious in return. 

“Did he just flirt with you?” Samira asked incredulously. 

Thaniel shook his head. “I don’t know. Didn’t he do that with you?”

Samira laughed and finished her coffee. Together they went back to find the fire extinguished - and their boss pacing in front of the store, back and forth, back and forth, and, upon seeing them, almost dropping the phone and shouting at them because they hadn’t immediately called. While Thaniel felt bad upon realising that they probably should have made clear that they weren’t inside the building, their boss didn’t berate them for that, nor did she ask. So, when Thaniel sat on the bus back home and dropped back into bed, he didn’t particularly regret that he would be working for a good looking son of a lord in the future.

Samira and Thaniel began working in a small café off King’s Cross. The way to work had shortened considerably, since he could take the Victoria line straight from Pimlico, where he lived in a tiny flat under the stairs with almost no sunlight, a small electric piano and a lot of damp walls. It was all he could afford, but he was close to the Tate and the Thames and that were two things he would desperately miss if he moved away. The rent was only cheap because he had inherited the contract from a kind man who had lived there all his life and most of the objects in the flat were older than Thaniel himself. Thaniel had played the piano at the community centre sometimes and they had talked about music often, but also, occasionally, about how expensive London was, and he had offered Thaniel his flat when he moved into a pension home.

After three weeks of working for Fanshaw, who had been enthusiastic about them actually sending in their applications, and who had shown them around one day, only to leave them to the capable hands of the store manager afterwards, there was a small earth quake connected to an explosion in an attempt to boycott the HS2 project. Not the first of its kind, but definitely the biggest. Arrests were made, politicians promised a swift prosecution and an even greater effort to finish the new tracks, and then it disappeared from the news again without any discernible change to the actual project. While none of the buildings around King’s Cross were actually destroyed, a long crack in the wall meant that the café would have to close as the building appeared to be structurally compromised. 

Fanshaw called Thaniel to tell him that a position had opened up in one of the posher cafés in Knightsbridge. “I know you’re not one to be impressed by that,” he chuckled and Thaniel felt himself blush despite it all, glad to be on the phone and not face to face with him, “but that’s exactly why I’m asking you. As for Samira, I’ll send her into my Camden store. One of her friends works there, apparently. She’d be a little too wide-eyed to work in Knightsbridge.”

He was sad, losing Samira as a colleague. She had been a constant in his change of scenery, and with her by his side, he had felt quite at home at the Kings Cross café. 

What he did like was that he could cycle to the Knightsbridge café. He had gotten a combination lock for his bike, not wanting to risk running late again on account of broken off keys, but he did keep his Oyster card on him, just in case something would go wrong. He realised he was a little paranoid, but after receiving the first payment for his work in the other café, Thaniel had decided that he would quite like to work for Fanshaw for the foreseeable future. 

He pulled his gloves off as he entered the café. Fanshaw had asked him to come in the afternoon so that he could show him around. While the café looked much more like a gentleman’s club in Whitehall – not that Thaniel had ever actually been inside one – all the machines and processes were the same. He was shown a list of the names of his colleagues and given his rota for the coming month. No holidays in the first three months. Not a rule, but a request. Fanshaw gave him a grave look when he informed him. Thaniel simply nodded. He didn't have any plans until the summer. 

“Good man,” he smiled and patted his arm. “I’ll be in the back if you need me.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, short chapter is short. I'll post a new one every day until it's done. Might become 13 rather than 12 chapters :p  
> Thank you so much for reading! <3

Thaniel usually took the morning shift, together with two other colleagues, and then, when Fanshaw arrived just after lunch, he’d report back to him, even though there was rarely anything to report. After a couple of days, he had learned the drinks of a few regulars and, if they ordered anything that required milk foam, he began to pour them latte art into their drinks. He tried to guess what might amuse them, and when he wasn’t sure, he’d just do a clover leaf for luck or a smiley to make them smile. Those were for the ones that didn’t seem too posh, though. He never created latte art for those who paid with platinum credit cards and wore jewellery that broke the light of the dim lamps above the bar, splashing tiny rainbows against the walls. 

Almost every day when he left, he noticed a young man sitting by the window. Always in the same seat. Always very calm and composed. His shirts were pristine, but not quite like anyone else’s, like he didn’t buy them – or rather have them tailored – in London. He looked both fragile and strong, and Thaniel caught himself looking at him with interest more than once. 

For some reason, the man had never ordered anything from him, but always had a cup of something sitting next to him when Thaniel left. In front of him, a piece of cloth covered the table, holding what looked like tiny parts of machinery. Probably one of those people who fixed iPhones for a smaller sum than the store would take. Sometimes, a Japanese newspaper, one of the many international papers he laid out every morning, rested on the table next to him and he would read in it while cleaning some of the parts on the cloth almost absentmindedly. It struck Thaniel as odd, because nobody else read any of the papers, even though the clientele was definitely international. People used their phones to read the news instead. This one appeared to be the only one interested in print media. Old school. 

Thaniel wasn’t sure why he kept looking at him whenever he was about to go. He seemed like inventory almost, but he never saw him arrive, and because he always went home at the same time, he never saw him leave either. Or order his drink. Or use the toilet. Thaniel had just changed back into his clothes and got ready to leave when a small dog, which had, until then, sat quietly at the feet of his owner, suddenly rushed towards the window to bark happily at two pigeons outside. 

The momentum of trying to catch the leash caused the owner’s chair to tip back and Thaniel could already see her falling backwards and cracking her head open on the edge of the neighbouring table, when the young man got up in a flash and stopped her movement. He carefully tipped the chair back into a safe position while he had simultaneously caught the leash in his other hand and coaxed the dog back to his owner. 

“Apologies,” he said and returned to his seat, but not before looking up, just briefly, and meeting Thaniel’s eyes. Thaniel felt it all the way down into his toes.

He was Japanese, which shouldn’t have surprised Thaniel, considering the newspaper, but he had a haircut that suggested he had been going to an English barber who didn’t quite know what to do with his hair. His hair was dyed blond and longer in the front than in the back. From behind, he could easily pass as a public school boy or a postgrad. It was very difficult to say how old he was. The shirt he wore looked bespoke, yet he had rolled up the sleeves like he didn’t care if it creased. He was slightly tan, even though Thaniel hadn’t seen the sun in months and he caught himself wondering how tan he would get once the sun did return in spring. 

He swallowed hard and exhaled the tension that had come with the incident. He really did not want to have to call 999 for an incident involving a rich heiress who had cracked open her head on a café table. 

Just as he wanted to leave, Fanshaw came rushing into the store. 

“Ah, Thaniel, good, you’re still here.”

“Everything alright?”

“King’s Cross!” Fanshaw almost whined and seemed to sag a little as if he wanted to faint to the floor. Thaniel bit his tongue as not to smile at that image. “Listen. Thaniel. I know you like the early shift, but would you mind terribly to take over mine for the next couple of days? Maybe a week? I don’t know. They are not telling me anything, those bastards, and I want to salvage what there is to salvage before I lose it all. And my mind. God. I need to take up knitting again. This is no state to exist in.” He turned around himself once as if to look for anything that could help him calm down, only to look severely disappointed when he turned back to Thaniel. 

“Please? I would be eternally grateful. Robin and Sam can take the early shift, but I need someone reliable here when I cannot be in.” He leaned a little closer. “The afternoon patrons are rather more … difficult than the ones in the morning. I trust you could deal with them.”

Thaniel felt slightly overwhelmed, but not at all sorry about the idea of being able to sleep in. He knew Fanshaw had given him the early shift because of their initial encounter in what had felt like the middle of the night, but he had never asked him whether he actually preferred to work in the mornings. 

“Yes, sure. If it helps?”

“Oh, it does help! Thank you!” For a second, Thaniel was almost sure Fanshaw would kiss him out of relief. He did get a rather tight shoulder squeeze instead. Considering that he had been going boxing every day after his shifts to let off some steam, he wasn’t entirely sure whether Fanshaw wasn’t using it as an excuse to cop a feel. He also wasn’t sure whether he would mind it if that was the case. 

“Come in at 1:30 tomorrow. Shift starts at 2? I’ll be there for closing around 8 every evening, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Thaniel nodded and took his leave, turning around to smile at Fanshaw, who waved at him from the door and thanked him once again. He never looked back, usually, but now that he did, his eyes found the Japanese man in the window, watching him as he averted his eyes when he saw that Thaniel had caught him looking.


	3. Chapter 3

Each day after that, the man was already in his seat by the window when Thaniel came, even when he came earlier than usual. He simply came to accept it as one of the things that happened, and he did not further question it. His presence had a calming effect on him, because he rarely moved quickly, though his hands dexterously worked on the bits of machinery in front of him. 

Despite having his back to the room, he seemed particularly perceptive and frequently moved his chair a little, almost as an afterthought, when someone needed room to pass behind him. Once, he raised his hand quickly to stabilise the tray onto which his colleague Robin was stacking used mugs and it threatened to tip over. Thaniel was sure that he hadn’t even looked at Robin before it happened.

The first time he came up to order from him was a simple refill of camomile tea. Thaniel was strangely disappointed, because the order was filled so quickly that there was no time to start a conversation. Yet, he was surprised by the colour of his voice. For such a relatively small man, his voice was full and deep, and golden; not at all what Thaniel had expected. 

The man had brought his own tumbler – with an intricate art print of a steampunk octopus surrounded by golden fireflies on it. He wanted to look at it more closely, but felt it was a little too soon for that, considering it was their first guest-barista interaction. Thaniel had made it a rule to never ask any personal questions before he hadn’t at least once called out the guest’s name in the crowded café after filling a complicated order. 

The man paid contactless and smiled politely at him when Thaniel handed him the tumbler. His eyes were so dark that the dim lamps from above the bar seemed brighter in their reflection. As he smiled, small lines appeared in the corners of his eyes, and suddenly Thaniel realised that he wasn’t as young as he had believed him to be. 

Later that afternoon, when Thaniel had finished cleaning the coffee machines, he found the seat by the window deserted. He checked his watch. It was just after 5pm. Did he usually stay this long to work on his project, drinking only camomile tea? Well, he would find out the next day, he imagined. 

The next day was Friday and the café was packed. He understood now what Fanshaw had meant and he navigated several orders which amounted to a lot of sugar but no fat at all, please, and more caffeine, and sprinkles, while trying to explain to a teenager dressed entirely in designer clothes that he could not simply take all the miniature honey jars, no matter how much he wanted them, and that he was not afraid of being sued for his refusal even if his father was a powerful man. After an hour of believing his pulse would never slow again, Jeremy, his current brother in arms of the afternoon shift, told him to go and make the drinks while he’d handle the till. 

His first order was a matcha latte, and he absentmindedly hummed a song he had recently taught himself to play on the piano. When it came to the froth, he looked up to see if he should risk an image and found the peculiar man standing on the opposite side of the bar, looking at him with an earnest expression. 

Thaniel smiled involuntarily and created a small bird. It was barely visible in the light green surface of the drink, but when he handed it over, plucking the order sticker from the cup, the man smiled back. 

Thaniel looked at the sticker again. He hadn’t paid attention to anything but the contents, but now he read the name. Mori. “Mori? Like, in memento mori?” he asked, surprised by his own frankness. The man, Mori, made an amused sound. 

“No. It’s just my name. Not Latin, in any case.”

“Oh, right,” Thaniel fought the urge to begin cleaning something to downplay his own awkwardness. “I’m Thaniel.”

Mori inclined his head, and Thaniel realised he was bowing to him. “I know,” he finally said. When Thaniel frowned, he quickly added, “It’s on your tag.”

“It’s Nathaniel, actually, Nathaniel Steepleton, but my father’s name was Nat and I … don’t particularly want to …” he trailed off. He had no business talking about his dislike of his father to a total stranger who probably wanted to take his drink away and sit back down and work on whatever it was he had been working on. Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but want to ask him questions. What was he working on? Why was he here every day? Why did he not have his octopus tumbler on him today?

“I forgot it at home,” Mori said, looking disappointed in himself. 

Thaniel stared. Had he asked the question out loud? Had he not noticed? “What, your tumbler?”

Mori nodded, and then looked up in alarm. He moved too quickly and some of his drink spilled over onto his hand. He cursed quietly in Japanese and Thaniel couldn’t help but laugh and then feel mortified. “I’m sorry, here!” he pushed a pile of napkins across to him. 

“Arigatō,” Mori said and crept away from the bar, looking defeated. He drank quickly and the next time Thaniel looked up to see what he was doing, only the mug was left by the window. He felt strangely saddened by the encounter, as if he had missed a chance, somehow. 

He carried that feeling with him all day, and even after he left the gym and cycled home, he couldn’t quite shake it. He was all the more relieved to find him back in his seat by the window the next afternoon when he arrived for his shift. 

Saturday. The day, Fanshaw had said, that was worse than Friday, but with additional staff. Thaniel could concentrate on making drinks all shift and didn’t have to bother with clearing the tables, restocking the machines and fridges and dealing with the till. 

When the octopus tumbler landed in his queue of mugs, he looked up with a smile, feeling a small spark of happiness at the sight of Mori standing in front of him. “Hi,” Thaniel said. “Matcha latte or camomile?”

Mori’s eyes flicked to the sticker attached to the tumbler, with the order spelled out in letters and numbers, and he sighed. “Amateur mistake, of course.”

“You’re not an amateur,” Mori said, sounding surprised. Thaniel, in turn, was surprised to realise that his accent was very similar to his own. Not at all what he had expected. 

“No. But sometimes I feel like one,” Thaniel shrugged and began making the drink. “What are you making?”

“Hmm?”

“Since I first saw you here you’ve been working on something. I first thought you might repair phones, but it looks much more complicated.” He swirled milk froth in his small can and then painted an octopus onto the surface of the drink. “Sorry, it’s so small. There isn’t enough space for anything bigger,” he apologised when he handed it over and Mori’s entire face lit up. His smile had been small before, more polite than anything else, and only in his eyes. This time, his smile was open and wide and Thaniel felt his heart skip a beat. 

“Thank you,” Mori said, “I’ll get a bigger tumbler then.”

Thaniel chuckled and found that, whenever he looked up and saw Mori still in the window, still working very calmly and sipping on his drink every now and then, he felt contented. 

Another week went by in a similar fashion, with Thaniel making drinks for people who ordered frankly overpriced drinks only to talk loudly about their recent investments and their weekend trips to Bali and San Francisco. Fanshaw didn’t tell him to go back to the morning shift, and always thanked him when he left, which made Thaniel quite happy. 

And every day, Mori would be around, slipping in when he wasn’t looking, and then suddenly appear across the bar from him as he made his matcha latte, now in a bigger tumbler, which wasn’t half as beautiful as the old one, but which allowed Thaniel to play with the milk foam. He tried feathers, flowers, an owl, another octopus, but bigger this time, a coffee cup with steam and a hot air balloon. Each time, Mori’s smile made Thaniel love his job, despite all the fuss the other patrons made.


	4. Chapter 4

The café was closed on Sundays and Thaniel decided that he was not going to stay in all day and play the piano, like he usually did when he didn’t visit the gym, but that he would take a long walk along the river. He crossed Chelsea Bridge and walked east on the Southside of the Thames, drifting aimlessly through Battersea Park, enjoying the frost on the ground and the eerie atmosphere in the unusually empty park. He realised that, for the first time in a long time, he really did feel like his life was changing for the better. He had to admit to himself that he found the more difficult and rude guests hilarious. Every single one of them was clearly more concerned with how they looked and what clothes they wore than with anything that mattered. He wondered if they ever looked out of their gigantic apartments and villas facing Hyde Part, and just enjoyed their privilege. 

Staring at the Thames and seeing something that could have been a root or a sea monster float past him, he was reminded of the octopus on Mori’s tumbler. It looked expensive, hand crafted. Not at all like a store-bought to-go mug. Not that he was overly familiar with coffee tumbler designs, but he was sure he had never seen one that was so … pretty. 

He heard a soft hoot behind him and when he turned around, he saw an owl on a tree branch a few yards away. Thaniel was sure that he had never seen a wild owl in his life. It blinked. He blinked back. 

Then his eyes fell on a familiar head of dyed blond hair. Mori was walking slowly along the path that ran parallel to the river, his hands buried deeply in the pockets of his grey winter coat, a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck and half of his face. Nevertheless, Thaniel was sure it was him. And that he was freezing.

“Mori!” he called out, surprising himself. The man stopped mid-step and turned, looking equally surprised. 

“Hi,” Thaniel pushed himself away from the banister and walked towards him. 

Mori looked at him, quietly, calmly. “Steepleton.” The grey day turned momentarily golden. He was amused that Mori called him by his last name. It reminded him of his last years in school. He was also slightly impressed that he had remembered his family name.

“So, you don’t just go to a different coffee shop on Sundays to work on your projects, hmm?” Thaniel smiled and found himself rocking back and forth on his heels. Once he realised how absolutely out of character that was for him, he forced himself to stop. 

“No. On Sundays I walk.”

“Yeah, me, too. At least today I am.”

“Do you want to join me?” Mori asked, his face still half hidden by the scarf. 

“Yes, sure. Are you cold?” 

“I’m always cold when I’m not in a heated room. It’s just London.”

“Where are you from?”

“Yokohama.”

“Have you lived in Lincolnshire? Your accent …” he trained off. 

Mori shook his head. “No.”

“Oh.”

They walked in silence for a while, and Thaniel felt it increasingly difficult to think of something to say. Things were always easier when he had something to do with his hands while he talked. 

“There was an owl, back there. Just before I saw you. Never seen one here.”

“Must be all the new development sites,” Mori answered, his voice adding warmth to the grey of the day. “Some might have lived in the power station before they started work on it.”

“It felt like a fairy tale there, for a moment,” Thaniel admitted and Mori gave him a strange look. Thaniel decided to shut up. 

When they reached the outskirts of the part, he did begin to wonder why Mori was taking a walk in Battersea Park and not Hyde Park. 

“It’s much nicer here,” Mori said and Thaniel stopped in his tracks. 

“I’m sorry?”

Mori stopped, too, but entirely. He seemed to freeze for a moment before he exhaled in a cloud of silver. “I’m sorry, I thought you had said something about Hyde Park.”

“I …” Thaniel tried to recall the last minute and wondered whether he had been asking the question out loud. It wasn’t the first time Mori had answered a question he had been sure he had only thought about and not actually asked. Or maybe Thaniel had begun saying things he hadn’t meant to say out loud. If this was the case, then working at the café might become a tad awkward. “Right.”

Mori had walked a few paces ahead, his shoulders pulled up against the cold. Thaniel repressed the urge to offer him his hat. Or his coat. “Which way are you walking?” he asked, not quite ready to go back to his lonely walk now that he had met Mori, even if their conversation was … strange. 

Mori turned around and gave him an almost pleading look. 

“Do you want to go and sit down somewhere?” Thaniel offered. 

“Inside?” Mori’s frame seemed to shake and Thaniel wondered why he was outside at all if he got cold so easily. 

“Of course,” Thaniel laughed and nodded at the gate of the park. “There’s a pub just down there.”

Mori’s eyes smiled over the edge of his scarf as he tried to bury his face more deeply in it. “Good.”

The pub was in between Sunday roasts and the evening crowd, though the smell of food still hung in the warm air. It took Mori a while to take off his coat, jacket, and what looked like a cashmere jumper, and Thaniel fought the urge to touch a sleeve when he peeled himself out of it and draped it across the back of his chair. He had walked into the pub with the certain step of someone who had come here many times and he had found the table closest to the fire deserted. 

Then he finally sat down, gracefully, Thaniel thought, and not at all like someone who frequented pubs. 

“Have you been here before?” Thaniel asked, happy to be able to see his entire face again. 

Mori shook his head. “No. Never.”

“How did you know that this table would be free?”

“I just wanted to go near the fire.”

“How did …”

“Smoke from the chimney,” Mori explained, his expression becoming just a tad unhappy. Thaniel couldn’t fathom why that was. 

“Fascinating.”

Mori gave him a surprised look and Thaniel smiled. “What do you want?”

“No. I’m buying,” Mori got up. “You’d be out there, walking the length of the Thames, if I hadn’t been cold. What would you like?”

Thaniel thought of the cashmere jumper, and the state of Mori’s clothing in general. He could afford a pint or two. He deliberated for a moment before he shrugged. “Surprise me.”

Mori’s eyes lit up and he quickly turned away and walked to the bar. Thaniel watched him, fighting the nagging thought that he wouldn’t have minded if Mori had continued to undress after reaching his shirt. He looked exceptionally handsome today. He stared into the fire until Mori came back. 

Thaniel had expected many things, but not a bottle of white wine and two glasses. “Food will be five minutes.” He poured each of them a glass and then sat down again and suddenly Thaniel realised that this didn’t feel like two acquaintances having a drink in a pub in the afternoon to get out of the cold. This felt much more intimate. He hoped Mori wouldn’t be able to read his thoughts on his face as he lifted his glass. 

Mori picked up his. “Cheers.”

The wine was excellent. “That’s a really nice surprise,” Thaniel finally admitted when he felt he couldn’t not say anything. “Thank you.”

“This one’s usually the right choice,” Mori started, looking relaxed, before he suddenly sat up straight, one hand flying up to his forehead. “I’m sorry,” he apologised. “I think I’m coming down with something.”

“Maybe hot lemon with honey, then? After the wine?” Thaniel suggested and Mori shook his head. 

“The soup will do the trick.”

He had ordered chicken soup, which reminded Thaniel of his childhood. To his great surprise, the wine tasted excellent with it.

They ate in silence for a while and Thaniel could see Mori’s shoulders relax little by little until, upon finishing his bowl of soup, he leaned back and looked at Thaniel with an open expression. He looked relieved, as though finding shelter and excellent soup and wine meant that he felt much better than he had when he met him in the park. 

“May I ask you a question?” 

Mori’s lips twitched with a shadow of a smile. “You just did.”

Thaniel nudged his shoe with his own in answer and shook his head. “What are you working on, in the coffee shop?”

Mori pushed his hand into his trouser pocket and produced a watch. It was a pocket watch, one of those old ones that Thaniel remembered his grandfather wearing on a chain. 

“I make watches. And other clockwork.”

Thaniel held out his hand and Mori carefully laid it into his palm. It seemed warm, which surprised him. When he pushed the lever on top, it clicked open with a silver sound. Suddenly, Thaniel realised that the coffee tumbler Mori owned wasn’t engraved. What he had seen were inlays of tiny clockwork parts into the surface of the cup. 

“I have a workshop, but the café offers me enough background noise to withdraw a little. I can concentrate better when people around me are talking, or there’s music, or people just … are. It helps.”

“That is beautiful,” he traced a floral pattern with his finger until it ended in a _K.M._ “What does the K. stand for?”

Mori looked at the clock when he shrugged. “Keita.”

“Keita,” Thaniel repeated it, quite aware that he was saying a word he had never said before. Its colour was new. “Is it to do with tradition, to use the family name?” Thaniel realised he knew next to nothing of Japanese culture outside of the random bits and bobs he got from the television or the news, but it put Mori calling him Steepleton into a new perspective. 

Mori still didn’t look at him. “Very few people call be that. Mori is fine.”

Thaniel nodded. He was just about to muster the courage to ask him about his family when Mori’s phone rang. Thaniel found that he was surprised he had one, even though that thought was quite silly. He had never seen him use it in the café. Mori apologised profusely and picked up. He began speaking in Japanese, his expression carefully neutral. But then he stood up and began pulling on his clothes, even managing to slip into his jumper without dropping the phone. He was fully dressed when he finally hung up.

“I’m sorry, I have to go. It’s a customer. It was very nice running into you. Thank you for keeping me company.” He bowed, just a breath of it, but enough to make Thaniel feel special. He was out of the pub before Thaniel realised that his fingers were still wrapped around the watch.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, looks like it's gonna be 14 to 15 chapters after all XD  
> Thank you for reading <3

For the first time since the fire – no, for the first time since taking up work as a barista – Thaniel felt genuinely excited to go to work on Monday. He decided to walk, as there was a sheen of ice on the road but the sidewalks had been cleared of it. When he entered the café, the seat by the window was empty. As he tied his apron, he kept checking to see if Mori might have turned up. Slowly, his good mood drained away as the day grew longer. He did not even mind working the till all shift, as he was distracted by how much Mori’s absence bothered him. 

Undoubtedly, the call he had received the day before might have been important. Important enough to take him elsewhere. Sitting in a coffee shop all afternoon, working on clockwork, couldn’t be the part of his job that earned him money. Yet, he had expected that he wanted his watch back. 

When Fanshaw arrived, looking a little winded, Thaniel couldn’t help but ask him about Mori. “Francis, do you know the patron who comes in every day around noon and then sits by the window and assembles clockwork?”

“What, Mori? Yes, what about him?” Fanshaw looked like he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know why Thaniel was interested in him. Thaniel felt heat rise to his neck. 

“I have his watch. I meant to give it back to him today, but …”

“He’s not in, clearly. Why do you have his watch?” Fanshaw began cleaning the appliances, more out of routine than need. 

“He forgot it on Saturday,” Thaniel lied. “Do you know where he lives?”

“Around here somewhere, I reckon,” Fanshaw shrugged. “Thaniel. I hate to ask you this, but would you mind doing this for another week? I’ve not been very successful in trying to talk them into renovating rather than razing the Kings Cross property and … I really quite liked that location. It would be a shame it they took it down.”

“Sure, yes.” 

“Thank you!” Fanshaw proceeded to make a double espresso which he unceremoniously downed as soon as the final drop had hit the small cup. “I need to sit down,” he said, sounding absolutely certain of the fact.

“Please do,” Thaniel chuckled. “Do you want anything else to drink?”

Fanshaw shook his head. “Thank you. I’ll just sit here for a moment.”

The door opened, and a young woman with a pixie haircut and very, very ripped jeans entered, followed by a very well dressed Japanese man. Initially, Thaniel thought that Mori had dyed his hair dark again, but only for a moment. When he looked properly, he saw that the similarity mostly came from the clothes he wore and how straight his spine was. 

Well, it wasn’t straight when Mori shoved his hands into his pockets and lifted his shoulders against the cold, Thaniel thought. It had been rather surprising to see him so changed. 

“Sorry?” he asked, as the woman had begun speaking while he was still starting into the middle distance. 

She all but rolled her eyes and repeated her order. Thaniel mechanically filled in the order sticker with his marker. When he wanted to put the cap back on, he missed and accidentally drew a black streak across the back of his hand. The woman chuckled. “Not your day, is it?” 

“Well, are any of them?” he said, sounding so bitter it surprised him. 

“Grace,” she said with laughter around her eyes now. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance. Matsumoto, what do you want?” she turned around and pulled her friend close. He let it happen in a way that told Thaniel that he would usually object to such behaviour, but never with her. He couldn’t help but smile at that. 

Once he had handed off their orders to John who was working the shift with him, he absentmindedly rubbed at the marker on his hand. He couldn’t remember ever doing that before. 

When the door opened and a handful of public school-type, suit-wearing young men entered, talking at a level that made Thaniel cringe with the explosion of colours that came with it, they made their way over to Grace and Matsumoto, talking all the while, and over her, even as she answered their questions, picking bits of the cookies she’d ordered and then leaving a couple of minutes later with Matsumoto in tow, who looked at her apologetically. 

Grace was left at the table, looking stunned. Thaniel was about to go and check on her when she caught sight of Fanshaw sitting at his own table… crocheting? Thaniel had to do a double take. His boss sat in the far corner of the café, crocheting something that looked like a bat. Grace did not seem as surprised as he was. She simply got up with her plate and mug and sat down at his table.

Thaniel couldn’t hear what she was saying, but he could tell from her body language that she wasn’t exactly happy with how things were going. He felt sorry for her. Fanshaw was clearly distracted and did not necessarily crave conversation, but they seemed quite familiar. He wondered whether she was his sister. It would explain her self-confidence and the fact that Fanshaw hadn’t so much as flinched when her friends had stormed into the café.

When he simply continued to look at the project at hand and not at her, only nodding every now and then to indicate that he recognised that there were words coming out of her mouth, she took her now empty plate and mug and brought it back to the counter.

“Thanks, I would have gotten that,” Thaniel took them from her. She put her elbows onto the counter and rested her head on her hands, looking at him. “You were right. No good days to be had here.”

“Anything I can do to …” he stopped in the middle of the sentence, because Mori had just come into the café. He looked a little rough around the edges and Thaniel tried not to stare. He turned his gaze back to Grace, who looked surprised. 

“What’s on offer?” she asked, smirking, and Thaniel realised that he had accidentally flirted with her. Well, more or less accidentally. 

“I’ll make you an espresso-based drink and magic anything you want into the foam? It usually helps to make people smile. It might help you, too.”

Grace chuckled. “Righto. Surprise me, then.”

Mori, who had taken his usually seat, sat up a little bit straighter at her words. 

Thaniel made her a vanilla latte with a double shot of espresso to take the sweetness out of it a little and to give it colour and then drew her an umbrella into the foam. “You never know when you’ll need one,” he explained. 

She laughed when she received it. It was genuine and made her eyes sparkle a little. “Thank you, Thaniel! What do I owe you?”

“Oh,” Thaniel leaned closer and lowered his voice. “That’s on me.”

“Why, what a gentleman. Thank you very much. It appears you are the only decent man in this place today.” She looked at Fanshaw as she said it.

Thaniel’s eyes automatically went back to Mori, who sat hunched over, one hand to his forehead. The simple joy he had felt at his exchange with Grace was overshadowed by a tight feeling in his chest. Had Mori really caught something on his walk yesterday? Should he had offered him his hat after all?

“Sorry, John, would you do the till for a moment?” he asked and took a wet cloth with him. He nodded apologetically at Grace as he went to wipe tables, making his way over to Mori’s.


	6. Chapter 6

A second before he could say hello, Mori straightened and turned around to him. He looked raw, as if he had been close to tears. 

“Is everything alright?” Thaniel pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. “Did you catch a cold yesterday?”

Mori swallowed and shook his head. “I’ll be fine in a moment,” he said quietly. The door opened and closed and Mori let go of his breath. After a moment, Thaniel saw that Grace had left the café. He wondered if he had maybe missed something about her. 

“She’s lovely, but I really, really don’t like her,” Mori said, even more quietly. “I’m sorry, I can’t explain.”

“Are you sure you are alright?”

Mori nodded, reaching out for Thaniel but then pulling his hand back sharply. He inhaled audibly. “Sorry.”

Thaniel was confused for a moment, but then he remembered the watch he still had in his pocked. He pulled it out. “Here, you forgot this yesterday.”

Mori reached out again, the identical movement he had just made. Thaniel felt something shift, as if he had experienced a strong déjà vu, or a glitch in a video game. He wasn’t sure anymore whether Mori had actually reached out that first time, because only the second time made sense. 

“Thank you. I …” Mori looked down on the watch. “Thank you for bringing it.”

“Sure, yeah. No worries.” Thaniel got up. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but it hadn’t been this. He felt wrong footed. 

The rest of the shift he felt a strange anxiety that he couldn’t quite place. It only began to ease when Fanshaw began clearing away the final mugs that patrons had left on their tables and he began sweeping the café, and Mori was still sitting by the window. He hadn’t been reading the paper today, and he hadn’t been moving as much as usual, even if that movement was usually just in his hands. 

“Hey, Mori,” Thaniel called when he had finished cleaning the bar and was about to get changed. “We’re closing.”

“Sorry, yes, I know.” Mori got up and began pulling on his jacket and then his coat. When he wrapped his scarf around his neck, Thaniel walked over to him, not quite knowing why. When Mori looked up at him with sad eyes, he shook his head. “I’ll be done in a second. Wait for me?” 

Mori’s face, which had been more expressive today than it had at any other time Thaniel had seen him, visibly relaxed. His shoulders sagged, too, as if he had been tense for a long time and only now remembered to let go of the tension with his breath. “Sure.”

Thaniel smiled and quickly went to get changed. Fanshaw walked into the room just as he pulled on his shirt. “Ah, apologies,” he said while giving Thaniel a once over. 

Thaniel chuckled and shook his head. If Samira had witnessed this she would have squealed, of that he was certain. “Stop that!”

At least Fanshaw had the decency to pretend to be embarrassed. Then he leaned against the door frame. “He’s way above your pay grade.”

“Oh?” Thaniel felt himself go very red very quickly. 

“I’m aware that I am saying this as your boss, who is the one paying you. But this man is a … I don’t even know how much he’s worth. Aristocrat. Stints at the foreign office before he started hanging around the café. Every party he goes to is white tie.”

“So, you must have seen him around those events then,” Thaniel countered and Fanshaw laughed. “I have indeed. That’s why I’m saying it. I know you are not impressed by that kind of thing. But you … should be careful. There's something off about him.”

“What do you mean?”

Fanshaw sighed. “Have you not noticed anything strange about him?”

Thaniel buttoned up his coat. “No.”

“Quick to act. Quick to answer questions. Sometimes even before you asked them?”

Thaniel stopped. So he hadn’t imagined it. How was that possible? Was Fanshaw in on it? Where they all taking the piss at the working class lad from Lincolnshire who had tried to make it as a musician in London and ended up making coffee for the rich and famous?

“No,” he lied, trying to look as if the mere notion was utterly ridiculous. 

“Well, pay attention to it. It’s uncanny. Not sure how he does it, but I wouldn’t put it beyond him to have fitted the entire café with spy ware. Not that I ever found anything. I leave him alone, mostly.”

“But, he’s … nice.”

“I’m not telling you to avoid him. I’m just saying, he’s probably not even realising you are there. He appears to exist in his own little world. People in the foreign office have been saying similar things.”

Thaniel thought about the pub and how cold he had been and how grateful when they went inside. Nothing about that screamed psycho-technology freak at him. And the watch. It had been a normal watch. It was beautiful, yes, and it looked like it might be worth quite a lot, but nothing about it seemed off. And Mori was waiting for him outside. “I have to go. Thanks for the warning, or whatever that was.”

Fanshaw nodded and moved out of the door to allow him to pass. “No worries.”

Thaniel left the café and was disappointed not to find Mori there. He had never been a smoker, but just then, he felt the absurd need to lean against the icy glass of the café window, light up, and wallow in his disappointment a little. He closed his eyes and pretended to inhale deeply, imagining the small crackling blue sounds the paper made as it burned. 

“Hey.” His vision suddenly turned bronze as if someone had turned up the hue of the street lamps, and he opened his eyes. Mori stood a couple of feet away, looking both confident and embarrassed, and Thaniel had had no idea how that was even possible, but Mori appeared to be several things all at the same time. He smiled and Thaniel felt a silly put persistent tug in his heart. 

“Fanshaw just warned me about you,” he said, turning around to see his boss watch them from behind the counter. He nodded at him with a grin before pushing himself away from the window. “Walk with me?”

Mori nodded and turned into the direction Thaniel had meant to take off in. Well, it was the shortest way home, and Mori probably knew that he lived near Battersea, but it still struck Thaniel as odd. They walked for a while, with Mori just one step ahead of him, rounding the correct corner without so much as a glance back. 

“Mori?” Thaniel asked, not quite knowing what to say after that. 

Mori slowed down and looked back, a smile on his face that disappeared the moment he saw Thaniel’s face. Thaniel felt robbed, somehow, as if he wished Mori would have shared that smile with him. “That watch you made. It’s … quite pretty.”

Mori did stop then, and he pulled the watch out of his coat pocket. He looked at it for a moment and then stepped closer to Thaniel to let a woman pass them before he stepped back again. Thaniel felt eerily reminded of Fanshaw’s words and the many instances in which his reflexes had seemed out of this world. Yet he, too, knew when people approached, because he could see the colour of their steps. Maybe Mori had a similar gift? 

“Here,” he held out his hand, still looking at the watch. “I want you to have it.”

Thaniel was baffled. He looked at the watch and then at Mori and the moment he decided that he couldn’t possibly accept it, Mori seemed to shrink a little. What if the watch also had some of that spyware that Fanshaw suspected Mori to have placed in the café? What if there was a tracker installed. 

“It’s just a watch,” Mori said, sounding resigned. “I want you to have it because you clearly like it. No other reason. I have many others.”

Thaniel knew he shouldn’t, couldn’t accept it, no matter how rich Mori supposedly was, but he found his hand reaching out for it without him consciously doing it. When his hand closed around it, it felt much warmer than it had any right to be, sitting on top of Mori’s gloved hand. Mori looked up at him in surprise and then pulled his hand back as if afraid Thaniel would put it back after all. 

“It’s a gift.”

“But it’s precious” Thaniel tried to argue but Mori’s expression made his heart stop for a moment, so he didn’t say anything else. Mori simply nodded and began walking again. As he did, Thaniel realised that it wasn’t normal to have such a physical reaction to someone’s smile. He felt his cheeks grow warm despite the biting wind.


	7. Chapter 7

As they walked, he understood that Fanshaw had not simply warned him about a patron. He must have realised that Thaniel was fascinated with the quiet man. And he was, there was no denying it. He wanted to know more about him. His personal history. He wanted to know why he spoke with a Lincolnshire accent even though he wasn’t from up north. He wanted to know how it was possible that a young man like him somehow knew how to make intricate and beautiful pocket watches. And why he was walking him home, instead of suggesting to sit down somewhere to have a drink. Because that would be really quite lovely, wouldn’t it? His eyes settled on the pub sign across the street. 

“Would you prefer that?” Mori asked, and then stopped dead in his tracks. 

Thaniel’s breath caught and he stopped, too. “What?”

Mori pressed his lips together as if trying to keep other words from leaving his mouth. His eyes were wide. He seemed afraid and that took Thaniel off guard. 

“What do you mean, would I prefer that?”

Mori looked increasingly panicked and Thaniel considered taking a step closer, just to see him bolt. Mori took a step back on his own accord. 

“I was thinking out loud. It happens, sometimes, when I don’t concentrate. I was momentarily distracted and …”

“Can you read my mind?” Thaniel asked, not knowing what else to say. It was ridiculous, but considering the alternatives, he’d almost have preferred it to be that, because what Mori had just done couldn’t be done with gadgets, no matter how advanced. “You’ve done it before.”

Mori had frozen. He stood entirely still, his eyes still wide with fear. He almost did not seem to be breathing. 

“Mori,” Thaniel raised his hands as if to show that he did not mean any harm and took a step forward. He was simultaneously relieved and worried when Mori didn’t move. “Talk to me.”

“Steepleton,” Mori finally said, staring at his chest now. Thaniel winced at how formal he made it sound. “I’m sorry, Thaniel. I did not mean to unsettle you.”

“But can you? Because I see colour where there is sound and I hear sound when I see colours and it seems insane to anyone who doesn’t know what that feels like and it seems to me that you are either an incredibly skilled secret agent with AI technology that is way beyond anything that we know about and which would be utterly ridiculous, or you can read my mind.”

Mori’s eyes met his. They were full of tears. When he blinked, they spilled over and he wiped at them, almost angrily. “I can’t read your thoughts, no.”

Thaniel was at a loss as to what to say, because it meant that there was only one other option. 

“If I tell you now, it won’t be … right. I’ve been afraid of this.”

“Is it classified?” Thaniel asked, wondering why Mori was still standing there, and still talking to him. He couldn’t fathom why someone like Mori would be interested in someone like Thaniel, professionally. 

Mori sighed. “No. But you are not ready to hear me say it.”

Thaniel squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. He knew he would look imposing like this, but he wanted to make sure that Mori didn’t think he was going to falter at the challenge. “What makes you so sure?”

“Grace …”

Thaniel deflated. “Grace? What about her?”

Mori shook his head, a defiant look on his face. “I’m truly sorry. I’m sorry I asked when I wasn’t meant to. I did not mean to confuse you or make you feel afraid.”

“Mori. You walked ahead of me when we left, like you knew where I was going to go. Do you know where I live?”

Mori nodded. 

“How?”

“I just know.”

“Did you know I was going to be at Battersea Park?”

“Yes.” His voice had lost the gold. It looked rusty now. Like dried blood. 

“Why me? What do you want?”

Mori’s eyes squeezed shut and he looked as if he was about to faint. A ridiculous notion, normally, but he truly looked shaky on his legs. Thaniel surprised himself when he stepped forward and placed his hands on Mori’s arms, making sure he wouldn’t sink to the ground. Something about his behaviour told him that Mori couldn’t possibly be a sinister secret agent. But then, what did he know about people like that? People who created entire identities only to get information from someone. 

“Are you a secret agent?” Thaniel asked, trying to sound less imposing than he looked. Mori inhaled shakily. 

“I used to be. I was recruited before I had finished my education.”

“Are you using your clockwork to spy on people? Is that why you gave me your watch?”

Mori shook his head minutely. “No. I … want you to have it. Because you … love it. I mean, you will love it. Would … loved it. Proba… possibly, I’m not … sure.” Mori’s accent had changed as he talked and he seemed to struggle to find the right words and it made Thaniel feel like someone was pulling the carpet from under his feet. Mori was white as a sheet.

A moment later, Mori's legs gave out and all Thaniel could do was pull him close. He had absolutely no idea why he was doing what he was doing and why he hadn’t long called the police, but the notion that Mori had a gift seemed to make much more sense than anything else. And there was nothing sinister in the desperation he had seen in his expression before he had pulled up his hands to cover his face. 

As he held him, he thought that, had the circumstances been different, he would have quite enjoyed it. Now it just seemed awkward and a little bit insane. 

Finally, Mori inhaled deeply and pulled back. His face was flushed and he looked mortified. “I’m so sorry. I had no intention of breaking down like this. And I had absolutely no intention of worrying you. I’m … so, so sorry.” He moved away, but not without squeezing Thaniel’s hand for a moment, looking at him as if hoping that Thaniel would understand. Only Thaniel had no idea what there was to be understood. At least, he thought, he had sounded like himself again. 

He walked home by himself, feeling hollow.


	8. Chapter 8

Mori did not come to the café on Tuesday, nor on Wednesday, and Thaniel caught himself glancing at his empty chair again and again, hoping that he would show up. When someone else sat down in his seat, he felt a weight settle in his stomach, as if he had lost something precious without having realised it. It felt a little bit like grief. 

When someone ordered a matcha latte, he looked up, his heart contracting painfully when he found a ponytailed woman with pink acrylic fingernails staring at her phone. 

When Fanshaw came to relieve him and lock up, he stopped him before Thaniel could go and change, asking what was wrong. Thaniel lied and answered that he felt under the weather and would let him know if he fell ill the next day. Fanshaw pointedly did not ask about Mori. 

Just when he was about to leave, Grace came into the café. The dress she wore fluttered behind her, making her entrance all the more dramatic. She threw her bag on a table and fell into a chair. “He stood me up!” 

Thaniel stopped dead in his tracks. Mori had mentioned Grace. Only he couldn’t quite remember in which context. But he had named her when Thaniel had asked why he had known all those things about Thaniel. Was she in on it? Or was it something completely different? Had he meant that Grace was important to him? He had said he didn't like her, but that didn't mean that they weren't somehow involved. 

Thaniel swallowed his disappointment and fished a chocolate coin out of the bowl from behind the counter, putting it down on the table in front of her. To his shame, he felt relieved that she was also miserable, even if he had no idea whether he could or should trust her.

“Rough day?”

“He said he’d take me to the party at the Japanese embassy. I was supposed to meet his father today. My one chance to make something of myself in this world of aristocrats and pencil pushers.”

Thaniel felt his heart sink. 

“Why would you want that for yourself?” Fanshaw asked from the backdoor. “And Grace, I told you so many times that you can’t just barge in here and …”

“Fuck you. If you had married me, I wouldn’t have to worry about anything. Good impressions or not, I need the funding for my research and if you’d only …”

“Can we not have this conversation in front of Thaniel, please?” 

Thaniel was surprised that Grance and Franshaw were that familiar with each other after all. “You were engaged?” he asked, despite it all. 

“Our parents thought we were perfectly matched, yes. Clearly, we are not,” she glared at Fanshaw who, at first, stood entirely still, but then he chuckled and shook his head. “There’s friends with benefits and then there’s friends with benefits,” he said, wiping down the counter. “No offense, Grace, but you are neither.”

“Let me reiterate: fuck you!”

Thaniel felt severely uncomfortable. Was she after Mori for the money? Was he after her for something he didn’t yet understand? He had admitted to being a spy and that in itself seemed ridiculous. But what if he was and she was in on it and in some obscure and strange way it all made sense, only that Thaniel, who had no clear understanding or knowledge of that sphere of society, had stumbled into their path because of a fire. 

“Matsumoto is doubtlessly still worrying about what colour of shoelaces to put on. It’s barely past seven. The event starts at eight, no?”

Grace rolled her eyes while Thaniel wanted to kiss his boss. Not Mori then. But Grace? Why Grace? He watched her, closely. 

“Why do you need to get married?”

“I don’t just need to get married. I need to get married to a rich man. State funding has been impossible to acquire for my project and the only way for me to continue my research is to become independently wealthy. Francis would have been perfect, but he refuses to even consider it.”

“I am not going to marry for convenience, Grace. You know that and you know I never would. I don’t care what my family says or what they will write in the gossip mags. I’ll marry the man I love or nobody at all.”

Thaniel wasn’t in the least surprised, but he could tell from Grace’s expression that she was hurt nevertheless. 

“Fine. Be like that.”

“And you actually like Matsumoto. Don’t pretend otherwise. He’s got all the money you need. He’s pretty enough so you can show him off on your arm. And he actually tolerates your moods.”

She kicked a chair as if to underline his point. For a moment, Thaniel could see himself fall in love with her. He didn’t quite know why, but she looked incredible like this, with her eyes sparking anger, and lips pulled into a sneer and her hands clinging to her purse as if she was about to throw it at Fanshaw. When she caught him staring, she deflated a little and blushed. “Are you okay?” Thaniel asked quietly and she nodded. “It’s just one of those days.”

“Yeah, one of those weeks, more like,” Thaniel nodded. “I’m sure things will be alright.”

She smiled and squeezed his forearm. “Thank you. You are very kind. I’m sorry about this, I was so riled that, when I saw Francis wasn’t alone, I couldn’t quite dial it back. It was inappropriate.”

He smiled back and she cocked her head, her hand still on his arm. Very carefully, he pulled his arm out of her lose grasp. “I’ve got to go. Good luck tonight.”

“You’re not secretly rich, are you?” she asked just as he opened the door. He laughed, louder than he probably should have, and shook his head. “Not even a little bit.”

“Shame,” she said and winked at him. He felt a small glow of heat in his stomach as he cycled home.


	9. Chapter 9

Mori did not come again that week, nor the next, and then Thaniel changed back to the morning shift and he found it infinitely harder to get up while it was still dark outside. He yawned widely when he opened the shop on a Friday morning, knowing the sun wouldn’t rise for another three hours. And that he wouldn’t see Mori. Again.

“Thaniel, good morning!” Grace wore the same ripped jeans she had worn on the first day she had come into the café. Thaniel wondered how she wasn’t freezing to death. Then he wondered where Mori was and whether he was cold. 

“Morning,” Thaniel said, holding the door open for her. 

“Are you alright? You look like someone just walked over your grave.”

“Yes. No. Just some misguided thoughts that are hard to hide this early.”

Grace followed him to the back, where he dropped his bag and began to undress. He knew it was highly inappropriate, but somehow he did not mind her watching him. And she did watch with interest as he stripped off his shirt and pulled on the t-shirt he wore for work. 

“Found a rich husband yet?” he asked to distract himself from her appreciative glance. He knew Robin and Sam could come in at any time, but for a moment he allowed himself to imagine locking the door and making love to her against the lockers. By the way her eyes lingered on his chest, he guessed she wasn’t adverse to it. 

“No. Matsumoto didn’t even talk to me properly all evening. I met his father, but not in the capacity as a possible future member of the family. I was the insane scientist who is trying to prove that clairvoyance is real.”

Thaniel sat down heavily on the bench. “What do you mean?”

The way she looked at him appeared to be a test to see if he also thought she was mad. When he kept looking at her, she went to sit next to him, her leg pressing warmly against his. 

“I’m doing research on the paranormal. I know it sounds insane, but I’m trying to prove that there is a physical explanation for the fact that some people can see things that haven’t happened yet. No university feels the immediate need to support me in that, though, and any grant I’ve applied for has been given to what they called proper scientists. Men, usually. Even the Wellcome doesn’t want my research. ”

“Mori,” Thaniel moved his leg away from hers. He felt a little bit nauseous, as if he had been staring at his phone as the bus took a turn his body hadn’t expected. She responded by moving a few inches away from him. “That may be why he … maybe," his heart took up speed. "Maybe it’s real.”

“What are you talking about?” Grace seemed to have expected a very different reaction. 

Thaniel inhaled deeply. His hands began shaking, just lightly, but the longer he thought about it the more it all seemed to fall into place. “Mori answered questions that I hadn’t even asked yet.”

“Who is Mori?”

“You don’t know him? He knows you. He said he …” he stopped himself, knowing he would hurt her if he told her what Mori thought of her. “He’s always sitting by the window. He hasn’t been here in a while but he’s … said things, done things, that should be impossible. He once caught a lady’s chair just before she could fall over.”

“You think he’s clairvoyant?”

“I hadn’t thought about it. I mean, I had no idea that there is actual research done on this. Initially, I thought he might be able to read my mind or that he might be a spy or something, with very advanced technology, but … but you are saying there is a real chance that this kind of thing might exist?”

She nodded. “Unproven, as yet, but I know it does!”

“Maybe he has answers?”

“Do you have his number?”

Thaniel sighed, realising that he really would have liked to have his number. “No. And he hasn’t been back since …”

She gave him a strange look. “Oh, you are sweet on him,” she decided and gave his arm a gentle punch. 

“I’m not.”

“You just blushed. You are! Oh my god, and here I am, flirting with you!”

“I don’t mind,” he said quickly and then turned his face away, knowing he was only going redder.

Grace laughed and got up just when the door opened and Robin and Sam came in. They didn’t seem particularly surprised to find Grace there and when Sam made a joke about their pay Thaniel realised that she probably had asked them for their hands in marriage as well, just in case. 

“Ah, another proposal then,” Robin said, his thick Scottish accent tinging everything in a deep moss green. He spoke differently when he was working, but in his free time he switched back to his natural accent and Thaniel loved it. 

“In a way,” he said and rubbed his face. “I’m not rich enough, though.”

“I better go,” Grace said and patted his shoulder. “Thanks for the tip. I’m sure Francis has his details.” 

“He’s also very rich, apparently,” Thaniel said before he could make himself stop. He regretted it instantly. 

Grace laughed. “If he’s willing to support me, I’m not saying no. But if there’s a chance he’s sweet on you, too, I’ll pass on the proposal. I might ask him for a grant, though.” She winked at him as she left the room, and Thaniel spent the morning fending of his colleague’s questions even as they opened the café and started serving patrons. 

“Matsumoto? Really?” Robin finally asked as he handed Thaniel the next order. 

“Fuck off,” Thaniel said under his breath and Robin laughed. 

Despite carrying a strange weight in his stomach all morning, Thaniel found it slightly easier to breathe. There was a third explanation after all, and even though it seemed insane, it was definitely better than thinking that Mori had spied on him. 

When he got ready to leave, he found a post-it stuck to his locker with Grace’s phone number on it. He plucked it off and wondered whether he should give her a call and go out for drinks or something, and maybe spend the night with her and finally feel another warm body next to him in bed. But as he typed her number into his phone, he knew in his heart it wasn’t what he actually wanted. 

He was disappointed to find the window seat deserted still when he left the café. He wondered whether Mori was embarrassed or afraid of him. He had cried in his presence, and he knew that if it had been him crying and he had been held by someone whom he barely knew in the middle of the city, he would have felt embarrassed. 

That evening, Thaniel sat quietly at home, staring at the watch, hearing it tick in low golden waves, like a whisper of Mori’s voice.


	10. Chapter 10

It only occurred to him when he was about to fall asleep that he knew Mori’s full name and that there couldn’t be that many Japanese aristocrats in London who made watches. Instead of going to sleep to make sure he'd be awake for the morning shift, he picked up his phone and began searching for him. 

There were very few images coming up in his search, but there was one official looking photo of him with dark hair that was cut in a precise way that spelled out quiet authority but also obedience. He looked young, but at the same time as if he had seen too many horrible things for someone of his age. He was too earnest, a small frown on his forehead that didn’t look like it was particular to that moment, but a constant. Thaniel remembered that frown deepening whenever Mori had seemed to be in pain somehow. He felt the urge to touch his phone screen to smoothen it out. Clicking on the image, he entered the wikipedia page about House Mori, whose family apparently was quite a big deal in Japan. Nothing much was written about Keita Mori, apart from his unspecified government service. No note on him having moved to London either. 

Thaniel stared in disbelief at the date of his birth. Mori was almost fourty years old? How was that possible. If anything, he looked about Thaniel's own age and if he had been forced to guess, he would have assumed that the oldest he could be was thirty years old, but that he was probably younger. 

Eventually, he found an address, including a google street view image of his shop that looked a little bit like a miniature version of Disney Land, but with all the rides made out of clockwork. He knew he would visit him on the next day, if only to see whether he was alright. 

When he arrived at work the next morning, he told Robin that he needed a couple of hours to sort out something personal, and, after he had served the loyal Saturday morning crowd of those who went on to Harrods and Mayfair to work, he went to find Filigree Street. 

It was even smaller than he had thought from the images he had seen online and he walked almost all the way to the end before he found Mori’s shop. As he opened the door, Mori just backed into the room with a tray that held a teapot and two tiny, fragile looking bowls. He used his elbow to close the door and then set the tray down on the work top. 

He did not look at Thaniel until he had closed the door and taken a couple of steps into the room. Ticking clockwork gave the impression of falling snow and he had to concentrate to tune out the colours. “Hello,” he said, feeling rather like he was invading Mori’s personal space than entering a shop. 

The corners of Mori’s eyes crinkled, just a little bit, but his face was expressionless otherwise and Thaniel was happy to see that the frown wasn’t there either. He wondered if he should explain that he didn’t think him strange for crying in his arms or whether he shouldn’t ever mention it again, lest Mori would be horrified all over again. 

Mori’s shoulders looked tense and he wondered whether it was because of the cold he had brought into the shop with him. “Sorry for just … showing up here.”

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” Mori asked, pouring bright green tea into the bowls. Something made a strange noise behind the door he had just stepped through. The sound looked sea-green to Thaniel and he wondered whether there was water running anywhere in the house. 

“Wait, how do you know I’m back on the morning shift? And did you know I would come?” Thaniel asked, surprising himself once again with his frankness. 

Mori very slowly and carefully set down the tea pot. Then he nodded, looking uncomfortable. “I did.” The sound behind the door grew more persistent. 

“How?”

“I just do.”

Thaniel stepped closer and took one of the bowls. “Did you make this because you knew I would come or did you expect someone else?”

Mori nodded again and picked up his own bowl, sipping carefully. 

Grace _must_ have been right about her theory then. The notion that Mori had somehow accessed his google search was not entirely unlikely, but he couldn’t have known he would come here. His phone was still in his locker at the café, and yet, he had timed the tea perfectly. “Why haven’t you been back?” Thaniel asked, forcing himself to not say _I missed you_ out loud, but it hung in the air between them, almost visible.

“I couldn’t, I’m sorry.”

Thaniel rubbed his face, feeling suddenly stuffy in his warm coat and scarf. When Mori held out his hand, he sighed and took them off, handing them over, ignoring the spark of triumph that came with the fact that Mori had reached out just a moment before he had started moving.

Mori placed both on a peg next to the door he had come through initially. The coat looked strangely at home there. Then he opened the door and a silver creature slid into the room. It took Thaniel a moment to reconcile the sound he had heard with the sound of hundreds of tiny parts of silver and clockwork ticking and moving together. When Mori picked up the machine, he realised it was a clockwork-octopus. From the way it wrapped its tentacles around Mori’s arm, it looked very much like a real octopus that had dressed up in an intricately detailed steam-punk costume. 

“That’s Katsu,” Mori said, running one finger along what Thaniel assumed was its forehead. It seemed to stretch out against his hand. Something that should have been impossible. “I made him. He’s one of the projects I worked on at the café. Well, his insides.” He smiled and set him down again. 

“I missed you,” Thaniel said, surprising himself. His heart was full with the image of Mori being so gentle with his creation and he couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I came to work every day and you weren’t there and it felt wrong.”

“I’m sorry.” Mori drank more tea and then refilled his bowl. He looked sad again and Thaniel had no idea why. 

“For what?” he felt his patience wearing thin. If Mori kept his answers to two words without ever actually saying anything, he should leave and let him get on with whatever issue he was having that he couldn’t tell Thaniel about. He walked around the counter and was ready to pluck his coat from the peg when Mori stepped between him and the coat, his hands raised, just a breath away from Thaniel’s chest, and their eyes met properly for the first time. “Don’t go. Please!”

He was momentarily distracted by the smell of sweet lemon on Mori’s skin – and the fact that he was close enough to smell it on him. “Make me stay,” Thaniel challenged, closing the gap between his chest and Mori’s hands. He felt them tremble, but he also felt surprising strength in them. It was all he could do to keep himself from placing his own hands on top of Mori’s to hold them in place. 

“Are you sure?” Mori asked. He looked conflicted and Thaniel was ready to crawl out of his skin with frustration. 

“Are you?” he asked back and without a breath of hesitation, Mori nodded. 

“Good.” Thaniel took one more step, elated to feel Mori’s pressure against his chest ease only slightly, but enough to allow him to move. Then he bent down, using his right hand to cup Mori’s chin and tip it up. His eyes fell closed as Thaniel moved in and when their lips met, Mori immediately melted against him, every fibre of his being screaming relief. 

When he deepened the kiss and moved his hand from his chin to the back of his neck, allowing his finger to stroke the soft skin there, Mori made a small noise that set Thaniel’s whole body alight. He moved both hands to hug him closer and Mori’s hands slipped away from his chest and around his back, squeezing tightly. 

When Thaniel moved back, Mori was a changed man. He looked more relieved and alive than at any other time Thaniel had seen him, and a suspicion formed in his mind, just on the edge of it, not yet ready to become a real thought. 

“I have to get back to work,” Thaniel said, feeling rather unmotivated to leave yet. 

“Fanshaw won’t be coming in until 3pm today. He’s finally talked them around to saving the Kings Cross property.”

“How?” Thaniel asked, suddenly feeling rather weak in the knees. Mori’s voice had become just a tad more brilliant. 

“Let’s sit down for that?” Mori asked and took his hand. He led him through the door into a spacious kitchen and on to a smaller living room which featured a low table and cushions on the floor to sit around it. Thaniel looked down at their joined hands and marvelled at how small Mori's was in his, but how strong and sure. 

Thaniel dropped down onto one of the cushions while Mori sat down, gracefully, around the corner of the table just close enough to touch, if he wanted. Before Thaniel dared to reach out again, Mori held out his hand to him. 

Katsu had made his way into the room, too, and had climbed onto the window sill by using the floor length curtain to pull himself up. He sat there, pawing at the pane as if trying to catch flies. 

“It’s a condition I have,” Mori started, looking at Katsu or out of the window instead of at Thaniel. “You asked if it’s like your synaesthesia, and maybe it is, but it’s much more debilitating. Grace explained to you what she is working on. But I won’t be able to give her scientific proof, even if she believes I can help her.”

“But she said she doesn’t know you.”

“Well, we haven’t officially met, yet.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading <3

Thaniel placed his elbow on the table and cushioned his chin with his palm as he looked closely at Mori. “So, you will meet with her, even if you don’t like her?”

Mori’s expression changed, and, for a moment, he looked incredibly sad, but then he inhaled deeply and shook his head. “Not anymore. I mean, meet her, yes, in several possible ways, but I won’t … help her. ”

“I don’t …”

“She was going to marry you, in a different version of the future!” He sounded indignant, almost.

“Wait, what?”

Mori sat up straight and rolled his shoulders. “Last week, she asked whether you might support her in her research. She was considering her options, but it wasn’t just about the money.”

“What money?” Thaniel couldn’t follow. He knew that Grace hasn't been adverse to a romantic relationship, but he had no money to speak of.

“The watch,” Mori said quietly. “It’s … worth quite a lot.”

"What?" Thaniel instinctively turned around to check whether his coat was still on the peg. The watch was in its pocket and he suddenly felt that he should have kept it in a safer place.

“If you hadn’t been distracted, or if you had kissed her, or she you, you would have gone to get an opinion on it. She would have told you it’s worth a lot. Her … future husband, I guess, Matsumoto, he knows about my work. He wouldn’t have become her husband, though, if … well, he would have, in another …” he stopped talking and avoided Thaniel’s gaze. 

“But you said I loved … love it.”

Mori looked down, seeming shy all of the sudden. “In a different turn of events, yes.”

“This one?” Thaniel asked, slowly understanding what Mori was talking about. “I _was_ distracted because you didn’t return. I missed you because you _wanted_ me to miss you. And you hoped it would be enough?”

Mori nodded almost imperceptibly. “I’m sorry. I know it seems like I manipulated you, but I …” he looked up at him with pleading eyes. “I had to try. I couldn’t give you up without a fight. I’ve waited my whole life to meet you …”

Thaniel was stunned. The thought that had been hazily forming earlier became crystal clear. “You came to the coffee shop regularly before I even started working there.”

“I wasn’t sure on which day you would come. There were several. But I knew that if the traffic lights would fail around Parliament Square on that particular morning, the buses would go on diversion and you would not die in a fire, and you would meet Francis Fanshaw.”

“Why did the traffic lights fail? And how could you know the key would break in my bicycle lock?”

“A certain amount of repeated usage allows for a fairly predictable time of corrosion. If it hadn’t happened, you would have found that anti-icing work was taking place on your usual road and you would have had to take the long way around. I was fairly certain you would not be in danger if events would turn that way. The traffic lights were certain to fail because about three years ago a company was employed to fix the wiring. I may have suggested them to the minister for transport at a party. He did not know that they never planned for excessive cold, being a southern Italian firm. And there was always going to be a planned closure on the Central Line, so Fanshaw would take the bus, too. He doesn’t like caps after he had a couple of bad experiences …”

“You could foretell what would happen three years ago?” Thaniel was entirely baffled.

Mori nodded. “I see possible futures. All possible futures that affect me. Some of them are more likely than others. That is why I did not read your mind. But I do know what will happen when you make a certain decision. Some branches are very clear while others are hazy and dependant on a lot of different events leading up to them. The further away something is, the less likely am I to know the specifics, but, say, if you decided to not believe me and marry Grace after all, I can see that, too, even though I very much do not want to think about it.”

“So you knew I would be in Battersea Park because you were going to meet me there in any case?”

Mori shook his head, then nodded and then shook his head again. “You hadn’t made very clear decisions. Most of them surprised me that day. When you called out for me, I had no idea you would, because you didn’t intend to. I mean, I knew we’d be in the same place, but I didn’t know how you would react. You might not have seen me, because in a different line of events you were still looking at the river. But the owl … it made you turn around.”

Thaniel laughed incredulously. “That’s … unbelievable.”

“Yes,” Mori sighed. “It is. And it’s very difficult to explain, but … I had been looking forward to sitting in that pub with you for a long time. There were several possible scenarios, as we might have met just outside of the park, or an hour earlier, but we’d always end up sitting down there and I'd always get to see your face when you drank a glass of your favourite wine for the first time.”

“My favourite ...? Oh, I see. It's going to be, isn't it? And that’s why you knew the table would be empty,” Thaniel said triumphantly. “I was sure you didn’t just guess.”

Mori nodded. 

“How did you know that I liked you?” Thaniel dared to ask, knowing that there was no turning back now. He was somewhat distracted by the fact that Mori’s shirt gaped open wide enough for him to see his collar bones. Mori squeezed his hand. 

“Well,” he inhaled deeply. “You … did, well, do, in several different ways. But I _knew_ when you wanted to touch my jumper.”

“What?”

“In the pub. You intended to touch the jumper I wore. I could feel the aftermath of the intention, almost as if it had happened.”

Thaniel felt himself blush but he kept looking at Mori. 

“Why did you give me the watch, knowing it could change things between us?”

“Because you needed something to remind you of me. It could have gone either way.”

Thaniel looked at him closely, remembering the many times he had looked sad. The sudden exit from the pub after the call. The moments he had frozen – it had always been moments in which Thaniel had realised that Mori had answered an unasked question or predicted something that he couldn’t know. The tears. All moments in which Thaniel had been ready to bolt. 

“So … you always saw this … us … happening, but you also saw me being afraid of you? Confused? Appalled? Staying away?”

Mori nodded. 

“And still you always hoped that I would …”

“Kiss me, eventually. And mean it, yes.” Mori’s cheeks had darkened and Thaniel was relieved he wasn’t the only one blushing. 

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” 

“You weren’t ready. You needed someone else to talk about it and to get used to the idea. If it had only been me, you would have been too freaked out. You would have talked yourself out of believeing me and you would have thought about me, sometimes, but it would always have been tinged in distrust. And you’d have quit the job and moved to Edinburgh to stay with your sister. You just … weren’t my Thaniel yet.”

Thaniel couldn’t stand the edge of the table between them any longer, so he pushed the table away, hilariously and impossibly startling the clock-work octopus, who thumped down onto the carpet and scuffled off. 

Thaniel pulled Mori into his arms, kissing him with all he had. As Mori had frozen for a moment before he relaxed into his arms, he realised that he hadn’t intended to do it, so here had been no warning for him and he had startled him, just like he had Katsu.

“I’m sorry,” he apologised after he pulled back. “I did not mean to surprise you.”

“Oh,” Mori’s lips stretched into a beautiful smile and Thaniel had to keep himself from kissing him again. “I don’t usually like surprises, you are right. But this …” he leaned forward again and did what Thaniel had intended to do to him. “I like this.”

“Good,” Thaniel licked his lips. 

“You don’t always do what you think is right, or proper, or sensible,” Mori continued and pressed his forehead against Thaniel’s chest for a moment. “But that’s the only thing that kept you from overthinking everything. You follow your instincts, and they are usually right.”

“What happens now?” Thaniel asked, feeling entirely ready to call the café and tell them that he wouldn’t be back. He wondered if he could make himself sound ill.

Mori chuckled and shook his head. “I would like you to stay, but you should go. I promise you that you won’t regret it.”

“Are you going to come, too?”

Mori inhaled deeply and then looked at Thaniel apologetically. “I can’t yet. I’d be too happy.”

Thaniel laughed. “What? How is that possible?”

“I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything, so I would just sit there and stare at you and make everyone uncomfortable.”

“I wouldn’t mind that.”

Mori blushed, suddenly and very vividly. “I would, eventually,” he swallowed and Thaniel suddenly noticed how white his knuckles where on his hand that clasped his thigh tightly. 

“Oh,” he breathed as a sharp flash of arousal shot through him. If Mori could see the future and that future meant that they were going to be together, he could see the things they would be doing in the future, too. Things that he shouldn’t be thinking about when he was watching Thaniel serve customers or wipe down tables. He didn’t quite know what to do with that knowledge but he was very aware of the heat between his legs. 

“What happens if I stay?” he breathed and Mori laughed, but the gold was tinged with something less polished. “Nothing that won’t happen anyway if you go.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Fanshaw is a little silly (yes, again). Because he so totally is. XD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> It's now definitely going to be 15 chapters long.

Thaniel went reluctantly, but he knew that, despite the arousal that had so suddenly overcome him, Mori knew he would need some time to process what he had learned just then. The feeling of Mori’s lips against his stayed with him the entire way to the café and he had to force himself to look serious when he entered again. 

“I’m sorry I was so long. Let me know what needs doing.” 

Robin handed him the bucket and winked. “Tables, please.”

Thaniel quickly went to change, but took a moment to stare at himself in the mirror, looking for a visible change in his features that reflected how changed he felt on the inside. When he couldn’t quite find anything, he went outside and quickly cleared all the tables that were not used by patrons. 

“Successful?” Robin asked when Thaniel cleaned out the bucket and refilled it with clean water.

“Hmm, yes. It was quite important that I did go. Thank you for covering for me.” 

Robin nodded and Thaniel hoped dearly that the smile that constantly and persistently threatened to tug the corners of his mouth upwards wasn’t overly obvious to his colleagues. Sam had been making coffee and asked Thaniel to relieve him. He was glad he didn’t have to talk to any more customers that day and could concentrate on making drinks. Everyone who had purchased an espresso-based drink got some latte-art that day, no matter how posh and annoying they were. 

Fanshaw arrived exactly at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and when he saw that Thaniel was still there, sorting stock, he took the bags of coffee beans out of his hands and pressed an envelope into them instead. Thaniel frowned. “What’s that?”

“You’ve worked for me for what, 8 weeks, and 5 weeks in this shop, but I already have customers emailing positive feedback. The tips jar, which is, let me tell you, usually the emptiest in this part of town, has been much fuller than before you came. Now, I’m not sure whether it’s your adorable milk foam art, your general wonderful self or just the fact that you don’t give a shit about who they are, but it’s refreshing. This is an amended contract.”

Thaniel leaned against the cabinet behind him, Mori’s words chiming in his head. He had said going to work would be worth it. It was the only reason why he hadn’t left when his shift had been officially over. 

When he simply stared ahead, Fanshaw laughed and flicked the envelope with his thumb. “Open it!”

Fanshaw had added a twenty percent raise to his monthly pay. It was more than Thaniel had ever known a barista to earn. “That’s … why? I mean, the tip jar doesn’t mean more money for you.”

“Well, not precisely. That money will be added up and evenly distributed amongst all of you for a Christmas bonus. _This_ is because I made a deal with a Japanese tea company. Remember when I was late for the meeting with the Chinese and I saw your café burn down? The deal I managed to get with the other company is by far better than anything I could have gotten otherwise.”

“But … I didn’t do anything.”

Fanshaw laughed. “You made an impression.” 

Thaniel cocked his head, pretending to be scandalised, and Fanshaw shook his head. “Oh god, that came out wrong. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean. I mean. Well, that, too, but that’s not what I mean.” He rubbed his face and then scratched the back of his head before pulling himself together. Thaniel tried very hard not to think of his boss as adorable. “I had been employing a string of people who just wanted to move on from it. After Christmas, several of my best baristas quit and then I saw you and Samira, up before the crack of dawn, watching your café burn down and not even batting an eyelash. You just kind of went with it. That made an impression. _And_ ,” he spread out his arms as if receiving a blessing, “they are going to save the Kings Cross property!”

“Oh, congratulations! That’s great!” Thaniel feigned surprise. “Is Samira getting a raise, too, then?”

Fanshaw sighed and dragged his hand through his hair. “You’re right. She gets one, too, yes. She’s been a hard worker.”

“Then I accept.”

“Just sign there,” Fanshaw gave him a pen and Thaniel signed the contract – one copy for himself and one for his boss. 

“You know that this is ridiculous?”

“What is?”

“The amount you are going to pay me.”

“Well, I had a good talk with myself this morning and I decided to invest in people I believe in.”

Thaniel cocked his head. “Not just in me, then?”

“I don’t want Grace to marry some random oil baron just so she can have a chair in an obscure Oxford college.”

“I think she’s rather fond of Matsumoto.”

“You think? I thought she was rather fond of you.”

“Are you trying to set us up?”

“Would you be very much opposed to the idea?” Fanshaw asked, but he seemed quite invested, Thaniel realised. 

“I’m spoken for,” Thaniel said quietly and licked his lips, recalling the feeling of Mori’s soft lips against them. “Sorry.”

“Ah, well,” Fanshaw deflated a little bit, but then the shrugged. “I guess they are a better match. Her father is quite a handful but he respects Akira. And Akira’s father isn’t entirely opposed to the idea of his son spending time with a mad scientist.”

“She’s not mad,” Thaniel said, feeling himself get a little defensive. 

“Well, niche subject researcher, then.”

“But, you are not just paying me more because you thought I might eventually be able to support Grace, are you?”

For a moment, Fanshaw looked confused, but then he laughed and shook his head. “Oh, I’m sorry. No. God! You must think I’m an arsehole. I didn’t mean for it to sound that way. I’ve made a generous donation to her project. Completely unrelated to your raise which is entirely based on merit and hard work and, well, you bringing me luck.”

Thaniel couldn’t help but laugh, but then John interrupted them, asking for the coffee Thaniel had been sorting out when Fanshaw had found him, and Thaniel decided that it was time to go. 

Every yard on his way home he fought against turning his bicycle around and riding to Filigree Street. He had so many more questions, and he wanted to kiss Mori again and hear his voice change because of him. And he wanted to have a closer look at the ridiculously realistic clockwork octopus that behaved like a cat. But he would go home and think everything over and visit him again tomorrow. If Mori had time for him, they would have all day to spend together. 

As he rode around the corner into his street, he realised that he still didn’t have Mori’s number and he groaned in frustration when he got off his bike and unclipped his helmet. Maybe there was a phone number listed on the store’s website? He’d have to check that out again. And maybe look at Mori’s picture. 

When he hoisted his bike onto his shoulder to carry it down the small flight of stairs outside his flat, the sun suddenly broke through the clouds and hit the main entrance of the house he lived in. 

“Hello Thaniel.”


	13. Chapter 13

“Keita,” Thaniel said, surprised, watching his face light up. He hadn’t meant to call him by his first name, but considering Mori had called him Steepleton most of the time, he felt that they should probably move on to their first names. “I was just regretting not having your number.”

“I meant to give you my card, but …”

Thaniel smiled and, having put down his bike again, he stepped closer. As Mori was standing on the steps leading up to the upper entrance door, their faces were almost level. The way Mori looked at him made him wish they weren’t in public. “Do you want to come in?” he asked quietly, just inches away from his face. 

Mori nodded and pulled up his shoulders against the cold. “Yes, please.”

Thaniel smiled widely and leaned forward, sighing when Mori kissed him. 

Downstairs, Thaniel turned on the heating and put the kettle on. Mori had taken off his shoes and left them outside and then hung up his coat and scarf by the door next to Thaniel’s. His box of builder’s tea appeared shabby when Thaniel thought of the delicious green tea Mori had served him earlier. He realised a moment later than he was being watched from the door. Mori had taken off his jacket as well. He wore a different shirt than he had in the morning and the smell of lemons was more pronounced now. Thaniel felt his face grow warm when he considered that Mori had probably showered just before coming here. 

“How do you take your tea?” he asked, trying to distract himself, plucking two mugs from his cupboard. The only two he owned. 

“Bit of sugar in it, and lemon, but you don’t have any.”

Thaniel laughed. “No, I don’t.” He made a plan to buy an entire crate of lemons the next chance he got. 

They were silent until the water had boiled and Thaniel had fixed the tea. He carried it into the small living room. Mori sat down on the couch and waited until Thaniel had joined him. He put their mugs down and then got up again to get Mori’s watch from his coat and put it down next to the sugar bowl before he sat down, just a few inches too far away from Mori, but unsure of how close he should be. 

“You have questions,” Mori said quietly, wringing his hands. Thaniel cocked his head and then nodded. “That, too, yes.” He desperately wanted to reach out and touch Mori’s face again, run his thumb along his cheekbone and press his fingertips against the skin of his neck. Mori closed his eyes and sighed a little, leaning into his imagined touch. 

“Jesus,” Thaniel only realised what was happening when Mori opened his eyes again in surprise and stared at his hands which still rested in his lap. 

“Could you feel that?”

Mori nodded. “If you earnestly intend to do it, yes.”

Thaniel felt his heart beat faster. He did have a lot of questions, but those took a backseat in the face of what he had just learned. For a moment he intended very sincerely to pull Mori into his lap and …

“Stop!” Mori gasped, his hands clasping Thaniel's thigh. “Please.”

“I’m sorry,” Thaniel lifted his hands, as if that would do anything to keep his mind from wandering. 

“It’s not …” Mori laughed, incredulously. “I … have to get used to this reality. It’s not that I don’t want to. I do, so very much. But I just need a bit of time to stop being afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“Of you changing your mind about me.”

“You can _feel_ it when I want to touch you,” Thaniel said. He knew it was a stretch to believe that Mori would find that convincing enough to be sure that he wouldn’t ask him to leave anytime soon, but he hoped it would. 

“Can we just … have tea?”

Thaniel nodded. His fingertips tingled with the need to touch him, but he picked up his mug to keep his hands occupied. 

“You still have questions,” Mori said again and Thaniel swallowed. 

“Yes. You told me there were different scenarios in which I would end up in the café. Did you know I would work in Kings Cross for a while?”

“I knew there would be an explosion at some point, and I knew that the café would be damaged. None of the scenarios involved you being in danger there. And it kept Francis Fanshaw busy in Kings Cross, so I didn’t spend much time thinking about that particular event. You might have come earlier, if John Gelder would have quit, because two of his friends did, just after Christmas, and he seriously considered it. Or if Fanshaw had come to your café in Whitechapel a couple of days earlier and met you there, instead of on the day when it burned down.”

“He would have offered me a job, even as I was working there?”

Mori smiled. “Not quite. He would have offered to buy you a coffee.”

Thaniel almost choked on his tea. “He would have asked me out?”

Mori chuckled. “He would have. And you would have accepted and come down to Knightsbridge, but Grace would have interrupted your date. Or not. It’s fading now that it’s not happened, but I did write it down.”

“Why?”

“Forgive me if it seems like I overstepped a boundary, but I always wrote down what would happen to you under which circumstances. Not everything, but the important things. To keep track of the present.”

Thaniel was amazed and he hoped he would be able to read Mori’s diary of past futures one day. Then he remembered Mori visibly feeling better the moment Grace had left the café the other day. 

“Do you like her better, now?”

“Much better, yes,” Mori bit his lip. 

“So, in that scenario, I’d have been there and Grace would have interrupted and …”

“You’d have worked there regardless. It’s a bit of your calling, that cafe.”

“But you and me, we wouldn’t have …”

Mori’s face fell and Thaniel put his tea down to take his hands in his. 

“No.”

“So you came to that café every day all this time in the hopes of …”

“Meeting you. Seeing you happy.”

“God, how could you stand it?” Once more, he remembered his tears and his terror at getting it wrong. At getting ahead of himself and answering as yet unasked questions.

“I couldn’t force you to do anything. It had to happen the way it happened.”

“But you … when you said those things …”

“I was distracted. I was happy, seeing one version of the future where we’d be friends and …”

“Friends?” Thaniel was surprised by how disappointed he sounded.

“Well,” Mori looked down on their intertwined hands. “Lovers.”

Thaniel nodded, feeling it quite essential to hear Mori say it. He knew it was premature, but by god, if Mori told him he wouldn’t get to spread him out on his bed and make love to him with his body and mind, he would feel that a particularly unfair hand had been dealt to him by the fates. 

“I tripped. I was distracted and lost track of the present.” 

“Because, in your mind, we had already gone past those conversations.”

“Yes.”

“That’s very flattering, I think,” Thaniel said quietly. 

Mori cocked his head and looked at him like he was something precious. Thaniel felt the opposite of the grief he had felt when Mori hadn’t come back to the café. It felt like a wound was healing after a long period of pain. 

“Your accent,” Thaniel said quietly. “You say you’ve not been to Lincolnshire.”

“I hadn’t been to England until about three years ago, but I stayed in London the entire time. I couldn’t risk missing you.”

“Who taught you?”

“You will,” Mori said, looking at Thaniel like he hoped he would understand but knowing that he probably wouldn’t. Thaniel felt himself choke up when he realised what that meant. 

“When you spilled your drink, you spoke Japanese. And you … said it was difficult for you to express yourself properly when I asked how you knew where I lived.”

Mori closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply. “Both times, I was about to lose you. I lost my English because I lost my future with you. I’d have gone back to Japan.”

“But, if you’ve lived here for three years, you must have learned English from someone else?”

“I don’t talk a lot to anyone, really,” Mori shook his head. “And all the English I knew, I had from you, so I didn’t need to learn anything before meeting you.”

“Why me?” Thaniel asked after letting that sink in for a moment. “From what Fanshaw told me, you are … an aristocrat? Well, in any case, you are wealthy, and you wear incredible clothes and, I mean, the watch is worth a lot, you said it yourself, and … you have a clockwork octopus the size of a rugby ball. I guess what I am trying to ask is, what makes _me_ that person you were waiting for? Because I’m … nobody.”

Mori leaned forward and kissed him, timidly. “You’re my best friend,” he said quietly, looking away again. “You tolerate my condition – you find it fascinating, even. And …” he looked up at him with something like wonder in his eyes. “You love me.” He shrugged, helplessly, as if there was really nothing else he could say about it.


	14. Chapter 14

Thaniel let those words sink in. He remembered feeling it all the way down to his toes when their eyes had met for the first time. Something had clicked into place, and he’d been too distracted to realise that it had been such a decisive moment. The moment when neither Grace’s nor his boss’s interest in him would have a real consequence, because he hadn’t felt that spark with them. And he knew he wouldn’t. But with Mori, now, in hindsight, it felt so much more intense. Mori’s eyes had met his with the full knowledge of what might or might not be, but he had already been in love with him, then. Jesus. In love! He allowed the word to hang in the air between them for a moment. 

Knowing he would love Mori meant that he already did, now, didn’t it?

The notion that Mori knew how and when he would react was a very big idea to wrap his head around, but it also sounded like safety. 

He exhaled. “Promise me something?”

Mori nodded and then shook his head. “It really depends on what it is.”

Thaniel laughed and reached out to touch his face this time. He surprised him, but his smile told Thaniel that he didn’t mind. 

“I just imagined how, in the future, you know, after this conversation, you might know what I will do under certain circumstances, and I see how your position might be one where you'd feel like you should make things easy for me, to, you know, avoid conflict? Or disappointment? Could you try not to … I don’t know how to say this. If you are sure that we are going to be fine, could you just let me be grumpy for a while? Is that how it works? I don't know. Because I do get grumpy sometimes. Let me know when I am overstepping my boundaries? When I do things that I shouldn’t. When I make mistakes or … when I hurt you? Because, as far as I can see, in this scenario, you hold all the knowledge and I hold all the power.”

Mori looked at him very seriously but then he nodded. “I can’t promise you that I will just let things run their course. If too many options appear and I want to narrow those down, I might do things that will feel like I’m interfering. I mean, in hindsight. Like me making sure you wouldn’t die in that fire by running late. Or, like me not coming to the café anymore, hoping you had fallen in love with me, and to make sure you’d miss me,” he pressed his lips together and winced. 

Thaniel leaned forward and rested his forehead on Mori’s shoulder for a moment before he turned his head and kissed his cheek. “Okay.”

Mori’s hands came up to frame his face and he kissed him gently. Then they moved into his hair and he kissed his forehead, and then his cheekbones before moving back to his lips. Thaniel had never been kissed like that. 

“Stay here, tonight?” he asked, unable to imagine saying good bye to Mori anytime soon. “I don’t have to get up early tomorrow, and maybe you don’t either …?”

“I’d like that.”

“Did you know I would ask you to stay?” Thaniel licked his lips, not sure whether he was already overstepping boundaries. But Mori just smiled. 

“It is … was one branch, yes.”

Thaniel wondered whether there was a branch that saw them undress each other right there on this couch but he felt that maybe that would be him moving too fast, despite it all. So he detached himself from Mori and picked up his tea that had gone cold. He frowned at his mug, feeling slightly resentful that the tea hadn’t stayed hot for their conversation, but when he opened his mouth to say something about that to Mori, Mori began laughing and took the mug out of his hand. He placed it onto the coffee table and then looked at Thaniel for a long, quiet moment. 

Just when Thaniel thought he couldn’t bear the silence any longer, Mori shot forward. Once more, Thaniel realised how strong Mori was, despite his slight frame. He found himself on his back, pressed down by both of Mori’s hands on his chest. He was too shocked to react, but when Mori pulled his hands back and he tried to follow them, he pressed him down again, cocking his head just a little to signal him to stay as he was. This time, Thaniel was breathless for an entirely different reason. Mori knelt on the far end of the couch and pulled up Thaniel’s legs, taking off his shoes and pulling off his socks which he dropped to the floor without any further ceremony. Then, nudging Thaniel so he would finally lie properly on the length of the couch, he climbed into his lap. 

Thaniel tried to tell himself that Mori had known all along how hard he would be breathing and how his breath would leave his lungs in a long and much too loud moan once his hands slid under his t-shirt and jumper, but eventually he decided that dignity really wasn’t something he should be worried about with Mori and he arched up against his touch. 

Mori pushed his jumper and t-shirt up until he could go no further and then began kissing his naked skin. His hair fell forward and tickled his chest as he kissed along his linea alba only to move to the side. He looked up at Thaniel, as if asking for permission, and Thaniel nodded vigorously. The smirk on Mori’s face made Thaniel want to kiss him, hard, and with teeth. Instead, he was treated to soft lips and a slick, warm tongue on his nipples. When he couldn’t stand not touching him any longer, he pushed his hand into his hair and pulled a little, forcing him to move up so he could kiss him. He immediately wrapped his arms around him and began pulling at his clothes. 

Mori’s button down had by far too many buttons, really, and as Thaniel did his best to undo the shirt with shaking fingers, he was almost certain Mori had chosen it on purpose, just to drag things out a little. Or maybe he had chosen it because it was a little tighter than most of his other shirts and he could clearly see his toned torso when the light hit him from a certain angle. Once he had managed to open all the buttons, he spread the shirt open and found that Mori was wearing an undershirt. He shouldn’t have been surprised really, considering how cold he got, but he couldn’t quite hide his disappointment. 

Mori unbuttoned his cuffs and slipped out of his shirt, his expression almost feverish. Thaniel’s hands immediately settled against his stomach and then moved up to his chest. He felt muscle shift under his palms and then his heartbeat, strong and fast. And then Mori pulled off the undershirt in one swift movement and suddenly Thaniel’s hands were on his naked skin. 

There were a few pale scars on his chest and his left hip, but they didn’t look like surgical scars. Thaniel tentatively ran his finger along one, smiling as Mori’s breath escaped in a rose-gold giggle and he trapped his hand against his skin. 

“Are you ticklish?” Thaniel asked, delighted, but Mori gave him such a searing look that he decided he would test his theory at a different time. Instead, he ran his hand from his chest all the way down to his navel, where he stopped, unsure whether Mori would want to go further. 

In answer, Mori undid the belt and then the button. When he let his hands fall to his sides, Thaniel swallowed hard. “Are you sure?” he asked and Mori leaned down to kiss him. “Are you?” he asked back in an imitation of their exchange earlier that day. Thaniel felt a delicious twist in his stomach when he remembered their first kiss. He marvelled at how his entire world had changed so quickly. Then he reached out and carefully pulled down the zip of Mori’s undoubtedly bespoke trousers. 

“Pease tell me you are not wearing long johns,” he asked when he reached around him to push his trousers down over his arse. The breathless laughter that was followed immediately by a moan when he squeezed made him giddy. Mori moved off Thaniel and the couch, pushed his trousers down and stepped out of them. For a second he seemed to consider the temperature of the room and then he took off his socks, too, making Thaniel smile. He was fairly sure his heart was beating so hard that Mori could see it.

When he didn’t immediately climb onto the couch again, Thaniel undid his own jeans and, feeling a little silly lying down, he got up, too and pulled them down. Mori had picked up his trousers, shirt and undershirt and draped them across the piano stool that stood just a couple of feet away. Then he held out his hand for Thaniel’s jeans and waited patiently for him to take off his jumper and t-shirt. 

The way Mori looked at him as he folded his clothes and then placed them on top of his own without taking his eyes off Thaniel made him feel seen in a way he had never experienced before. He knew that after knowing someone really well, you’d stop recognising details about them, and the most beautiful person would just be that person. He had expected Mori to feel that way about him. The familiarity with his body that he undoubtedly possessed, even though he wasn’t quite sure how clearly he saw the futures, should have worked as a buffer somehow. But the way he looked at him told Thaniel that things didn’t quite work that way for Mori. 

Mori stepped into his embrace the second he couldn’t handle his eyes on him anymore. They kissed each other, just on the edge of tipping over into desperate arousal, but hanging on nevertheless. Eventually, Thaniel couldn’t keep his hands from wandering any longer and he touched his back, feeling muscles shift under his skin. As he held him tightly, one hand pressed against his shoulder and one against the small of his back, Thaniel could feel the tattoo of Mori’s heartbeat against his own chest. He felt strangely relieved to know that he was just as excited as he was. 

Finally, he dropped one hand lower and squeezed his arse again, causing Mori to rise to his toes with a moan. Then, because he didn’t know how else to ask for permission, he intended to pull him up so he could wrap his legs around him. Before he could imagine what he would do afterwards, Mori threw his arms around his neck and pulled himself up, wrapping his legs around his hips. Thaniel’s hands immediately took hold of his arse to keep him there, but then Mori moved down, just a little, until their erections were level, separated only by Thaniel’s boxer shorts and Mori’s undoubtedly expensive boxer-briefs. Mori’s head fell back and Thaniel began kissing his neck, drawing another languid moan from him. 

When he found what appeared to be a sensitive spot, Mori squeezed his legs and pressed himself harder against him and Thaniel knew that, for all the additional boxing he had done in the last few weeks, he couldn’t continue to stand and hold Mori up. He doubted he could have remained standing up even without Mori’s additional weight on him.

Giving him another warning by planning on letting himself down on the couch, Thaniel managed to do it without hurting either of them. Mori still had his legs wrapped around his hips, but he had more leverage now. He rocked up a little, his eyes trained on Thaniel’s, and when he groaned, he began to smile and did it again.


	15. Chapter 15

“Stop, stop, stop!” Thaniel gasped when he realised that he would come just from that. Mori moved back just a little to give him room to breathe. 

“What do you want?” He sounded so in charge that Thaniel moaned in reaction to his voice. Then he cleared his throat, somewhat embarrassed by how turned on he was. 

“I don’t know. Too many things all at the same time, but I’m afraid …”

Mori cocked his head and narrowed his eyes at him. “You’re not actually afraid.”

Thaniel laughed and leaned forward to kiss him. “No. I’m just very English.”

Mori huffed and pressed both of his hands against Thaniel’s chest and then moved down. “May I?” he asked when he reached the waist band of his shorts. His fingers were shaking, just a little.

“Have you … I mean. I don’t know how to ask this, but. Do you know what it feels like? You and me?”

Mori straightened again, but he was breathless. “I’m just starting to feel it.”

“It?”

“What you’ll do. There’s options, of course, because you haven’t decided yet. So I … feel a little bit of everything you are considering right now.”

Thaniel blinked. “Will it help if I make up my mind about it?”

“Right now? No. Because not knowing keeps me on edge. Knowing would mean this would be over very quickly.”

“Oh, okay.” Thaniel rubbed his face. He felt a little in awe, and despite trying to wrap his head around what he was able to do to Mori, all he wanted was to feel his fingers on him. And his mouth. “Please, go ahead.”

Mori looked much too serious when he carefully pulled him out of his shorts. He was very gentle, but by the way he touched him Thaniel could almost tell that he already knew everything about him. Nevertheless, he inhaled shakily as he looked down on him, and then up at his face. 

And then he began to move. One hand around his testicles and the other stroking him into full hardness. For a couple of minutes, Thaniel just watched him do it, fighting the urge to touch him back. Just when he wanted to wrap his own hand around Mori’s hand – either to finish himself off or to make him wait, he wasn’t quite sure which one he would go for – Mori stopped. He slid off his lap and took off his underwear. When he wanted to climb back into Thaniel’s lap, Thaniel moved forward on the couch, took hold of his hips and pulled him closer. 

He could feel Mori’s moan all the way down to his own toes when he pulled him into his mouth. Mori’s fingers pushed into his hair and held on, his fists opening and closing again, depending on how much pressure Thaniel applied. He hadn’t done this in a while, but judging from Mori’s colourful moans, he hadn’t lost his talent. 

“Thaniel, stop!” Mori begged eventually, his voice almost an octave higher than usually. Thaniel would find that specific note on the piano later and he’d incorporate it into his next piece, together with all the other notes and colours of Mori’s voice. “Thaniel!” Lower this time, less desperate and more demanding. He tightened his fingers around the base of his cock and applied more pressure to his head. “Thaniel!” Breathless this time, a declaration of love. 

He began stroking him, sucking on his head and swirling his tongue. Mori came with a desperate noise that cast the room into a particular shade of dark blue. Thaniel was so distracted by the colour for a moment that he forgot to swallow, even though he had firmly intended to. 

He pulled back and felt Mori spurt against his lips before he took a deep breath and sucked him back in. This time, he felt more in control and waited until Mori was entirely spent. When he felt his legs shake he pulled back and wiped his mouth. 

“Are you alright?” he asked, looking up at his face. Mori shook his head, but not in answer to Thaniel’s question. After a moment, he wiped his thumb along his chin, and his bottom lip and then the corner of his mouth before pushing it into his mouth. Thaniel tasted more salt and he smiled and he swirled his tongue around Mori’s thumb. 

Mori shook his head again and then leaned down to kiss him, climbing back into his lap. For a while, they held each other, but then Mori moved back a little and pulled at Thaniel’s shorts. He had to climb off him again to pull them off entirely, but he seemed quite calm about it, so Thaniel decided that everything was exactly as it should be. 

When Mori wrapped both hands around him while watching his face, Thaniel knew he wouldn’t last, despite the break he had gotten. Being looked at like that on top of being touched in exactly the way he needed to be touched forced the air out of his lungs in ever louder gasps. 

“Keita,” he whispered, reaching out to touch his face again while his other hand held onto Mori’s thigh tightly. “I’m close.”

“I know,” Mori said with so much joy in his voice that a part of Thaniel melted. A part that had always believed that he wasn’t good enough. That he couldn’t be enough. And suddenly he was. 

He came, smiling and crying out at the same time, feeling the pressure of the previous weeks fade into nothing but relief. 

When Mori kissed him while his hands still held him, he knew that it wasn’t just sex they were having. This was an apology and an explanation. 

Just before the pressure became too much, Mori let go of him and wiped his hands on Thaniel’s chest. “Filthy peasant,” he said as he looked down on him, sounding altogether too delighted by his own joke. Thaniel laughed and wrapped his arms around him, making sure he was just as sticky as he was, and then he held on for a long, long time. 

They eventually showered and Thaniel gave Mori one of his jumpers to wear and he couldn’t stop looking at him drowning in it as he sat cross legged on the couch, talking about his shop and Katsu and making clockwork. 

“You know I’ll draw cocks into your matcha latte on Monday, right?” Thaniel finally asked when Mori promised to come back to the café to keep him company during the next week - and in the morning this time. 

“I think I’ll live,” Mori grinned and squeezed his thigh. 

That night, Thaniel fell asleep wrapped around Mori, who had simply curled up with his back against Thaniel’s chest in a perfect fit. “Despite of what you might think,” he said quietly, pulling Thaniel’s arm across his chest, “I’m not usually what you would call the little spoon.”

Thaniel huffed and nuzzled his neck, smelling lemon again even over his own shower gel that had masked it a little. “What do you mean, usually?”

“In the future,” Mori said, sounding entirely contented. 

Thaniel was just about to drift off when a strange sound came from the watch he had put down on his bedside table. It had opened without anyone touching it. Thaniel reached out for it, not sure whether Mori had already fallen asleep, and cradled it in his hand. 

A second latch had not only opened the watch to show the clock face, but it had opened the back of the watch, revealing the clockwork, kept in place by a thin sheet of glass, and showing the inside of the casing. It looked like a beautiful, mechanical flower that had suddenly blossomed. Thaniel blinked tiredly at it but the rose gold ticking noise offered him almost enough light to see by. It carried the same floral pattern the front piece did, but the letters were different. Thaniel rubbed his eyes just to make sure that he wasn't imagining things before he held it up closely to his face. In the middle of the vines, the letters TS were cut in filigree lettering. 

For a moment, he couldn’t breathe and then he couldn’t help but hug Mori tightly against him, burying his face in his hair. 

Mori pulled the hand that held the watch up to his lips to kiss it. “It was always yours, and so was I.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This it it - a coffee shop AU I couldn't stop thinking about, out of my system. Honestly, talking about the books/characters with my friends inspired this, and made two things are very clear to me - Fanshaw is absolutely in lust with Thaniel, but, for the sake of their different classes, he's not doing anything about it - and the fact that Thaniel is just a very pretty man. :D 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading - I know this fandom is tiny, but I appreciate every one of you who took the time to read this!


End file.
